UK Students Donate Over 9 Tons of Items to Nonprofits

LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 9, 2018) — University of Kentucky students donated a total of 18,449 pounds of items during the May 2018 move out days with the Give and Go donation program (17,863 pounds of household and clothing items and 586 pounds of food). These results were a 17 percent increase from last year's move out efforts, which collected a total of 15,372 pounds. The items collected are donated to nonprofits such as Goodwill, God's Pantry and Lexington's Hope Center.

UK Recycling partnered with UK Housing, UK Auxiliary Services, UK Trucking, UK Office of Sustainability, UK fraternities and sororities, UK Residence Life, UK Transportation and Goodwill of the Bluegrass to offer donation opportunities to students, as they were moving out of their campus residences (residence hall, fraternity or sorority houses). UK Physical Plant Division print shop was the one responsible for the designs and signs for the campaign.

Each residence hall, and fraternity or sorority house received a Give and Go donation station, placed in their lobby, for students to use to donate unwanted items during move out. Most of the material collected was clothing, shoes, bedding, toilet paper, peanut butter, soup, shelving, floor lamps, area rugs and laundry baskets. Each lobby also received a container for students to fill out and place bike donation forms, giving them the chance to donate an unwanted bike, instead of abandoning it on campus. A total of three bikes were donated through the donation forms.

"UK Recycling is thrilled to see the students' response to the Give and Go donations stations during move out days. By donating items, students aren’t only doing their part to help divert usable items out of the landfill, but they are also supporting community partners and helping others at the same time. This is a great program and we plan to continue offering this donation opportunity to our students during each move out period," said Esther Moberly, UK's Waste, Recycling, and Trucking manager.

This year's partnership with Goodwill Industries of Kentucky made a great improvement on the collection of donations. Goodwill brought containers for collection and had staff on campus for 12 hours on Thursday and Friday of UK's finals week, which greatly reduced the demand of UK Trucking.

Goodwill Industries of Kentucky has recently recommitted to continue their partnership with UK.

"Our partnership with UK is mutually beneficial. As our society becomes increasingly more conscious of environmental impacts, donating clothing and other items for the purpose of reusing them is a great way for UK faculty, staff and students to support sustainability efforts — while at the same time helping Goodwill serve Kentucky’s most challenged job seekers on their way towards supporting themselves and their families," Goodwill Industries of Kentucky stated.

The Give and Go effort is also done during the December move out period, which has collected 2,000 pounds over the last two years. Donation containers are also placed in some residence spaces during the summer for summer students.