This story was published as part of NPR's Climate Solutions Week, focused on how communities are moving forward on climate solutions despite significant political headwinds.
“Reduce, reuse, recycle” is a mantra repeated by everyone from seasoned environmental advocates down to elementary school students learning about protecting the planet for the first time. But not everyone is taking part.
According to the research and policy center Environment America, the average American throws out 1,788 pounds of waste a year. Much of it goes to landfills, which are a major source of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.
One way to keep something out of the landfill is to give it a second life — and that's what's happening at Illinois State University, a public Midwest university a few hours south of Chicago. Every school year begins with ISU's Front Yard FreeCycle, when one student's trash — like discarded mini-fridges and futons — become another's treasure.
The solution works because it unites sustainability with convenience, and empowers the students to practice sustainability themselves.
Front Yard FreeCycle
“I was told be a jerk and run. So, I sprinted as fast as I could straight to this futon … Yeah, and I sat down, and I claimed it,” said Malia Bermijo at the FreeCycle in August.
In a clamoring rush that reminds one of Black Friday sales, hundreds of students claimed apartment and dorm furnishings spread out in a church parking lot in Normal, Illinois. Students put dibs on dressers, TVs, bedding, decorative items and more as they picked from loosely organized piles.
A little went a long way for broke college students.
Nayeli Wood, a junior, glommed onto cooking utensils, baking pans and plates.
FreeCycle saved Wood money on moving costs and let her express her love of sustainability.
“Both of those are completely true for me. I had just started at a new job, so I don’t even think I had my first paycheck from that job yet when I went to the FreeCycle, so I was really trying to grab as much stuff that I needed as I could,” she said.
Wood said she appreciates living in a place that prioritizes protecting the environment. It was something she looked for as she left home for the first time.
“It’s very important … knowing that people are taking care of the community, even though it’s not their job, just being there for other people, because there’s a lot of people who want to do that kind of thing and may not be able to.”
Also caught in the mad dash was Jack O’Toole. The junior transfer student was hunting for a mini-fridge and clothes hangers, which he found. In the time since, they both have seen use.
“My dorm does have only one fridge in it, so having that place for my own snacks and easily accessible, [it is] very nice,” he recalled. “It was a convenience that I got, but it also didn’t end up taking up that much power.”
O’Toole said the hangers saved him money and time he didn’t have to spend shopping at other places.
What once started as a special project in a social work class 20 years ago has evolved into a yearly routine encouraging students dumping their belongings at spring’s moveout period to think differently about their belongings.
“We started collecting the donations in the residence hall lobbies, but then we noticed how much more there is than just bins in the lobbies," said Elisabeth Reed, ISU's director of sustainability. "So we got moving trucks and we put about 17 moving trucks outside the residence halls throughout the moveout week and collected a lot of stuff."
Donations include bedding, storage bins, wall decorations and even the two hottest items each and every FreeCycle: mini-fridges and futons.
Then over the summer, 15 moving trucks worth of items are transported to a warehouse. Reed said most items need a little TLC after they get organized.
“It takes almost the whole summer because there’s so much, so, so many things,” she said. “But what we have done is just kind of compartmentalized it. We’ll start with rugs, vacuum the rugs, Lysol all the rugs, that type of thing, then move on to mini-fridges … those can get bad.”
Reed said all the folding, organizing and cleaning helps get rid of the items, since it is harder to take items that need extra work.
Sustainability requires ease
In one event, like FreeCycle, ISU reduces about 27 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions from the atmosphere. It’s roughly equal to the annual emissions of six cars.
That’s according to Michael Brown, director of the Ecology Action Center, a nearby environmental nonprofit. He said that might not seem like a lot, but that’s not really what it’s about.
It’s about normalizing this behavior.
“And so, I think normalizing these things helps bring more participation and makes this just a regular, accepted daily effort, so that we have more general participation by the general community,” Brown said. “It’s not seen as something special or unique, it’s not something that requires extra effort.”
Brown said the goal of sustainability-centered events is to build collective action. By creating like-minded individuals, real change can occur.
Those efforts also require making sustainability accessible.
“We need to make it easy so that everybody can participate and it’s not a significant challenge or barrier to do so. That’s how we bring everybody on board whether it’s waste, whether it’s energy efficiency, whether it’s air quality or all the other issues,” Brown said.
“We need to reduce the barrier and make it easier for everybody to do the right thing.”
Reed agreed with the sentiment, although she said that does not mean students are not already engaged. Many require more help from their universities.
“They want universities and workplaces and the organizations and companies that they’re supporting to be advocates for sustainability,” she said. “They’re expecting that in jobs that they’re looking for, and so they expect that those resources be at the university.”
Attracting students is not an issue. From tabling events to class curriculum summer programs, students take an interest in sustainability. Plus, free stuff is a big win.
The issue lies in improving efforts. Reed said ISU looks for nuggets and advice from other institutions.
“We’re a very small office,” said Reed. “Other universities have a lot more staff than we have, which would be helpful to have for marketing, outreach and education.”
On other campuses, sustainability is becoming a higher priority. Reed said an institution's org chart tells you who takes it seriously.
“We’re seeing in more and more universities that the position of sustainability is under the president, or it’s a chancellor-level type of position.”
Having jobs such as a Chief Sustainability Officer may do even more to increase sustainable living at a place like ISU. Still, that does not diminish the current efforts by the university and its stakeholders.
Students believe the efforts at ISU are worth it, although they agree the work is not over.
Giannah Boice knew if she had not found some of her items from the FreeCycle event, she would not have them at all. She said she’s excited to give back items of her own, like an office chair.
Boice said she appreciates the ways in which ISU has made recycling convenient.
“I’m a stickler for recycling. It makes me feel kind of weird to just throw paper away, like why would I throw it away and there’s a recycling bin two feet away?” Boice said. “So, the fact that they have the garbage and recycling connected, or there’s just recycling bins all throughout the classrooms … I think those are really good things, it makes it a lot easier.”
The Share Shop and Fix-it Friday
ISU bring sustainability to students through more opportunities than just Front Yard Freecycle. That includes yearlong programs like the Share Shop.
The free secondhand store offers another opportunity to keep items out of a landfill and give them a second life. It is housed within the Office of Sustainability, a former house itself.
“It used to be a house of a couple that used to live here. Some years ago, [ISU] purchased it from them and turned it into their Office of Sustainability,” said Garrett Smolen, who has worked for the office for over a year as a student manager, assisting in events like FreeCycle and the Share Shop.
“It basically looks like a small boutique. There’s everything from clothing to kitchen utensils to bedding. We have some wall décor, which is not for free, but we have plenty that is as well,” he said. “Whenever you walk in, there’s typically some dress clothing to your right, there’s some pants, sweatpants, kind of loungewear in the middle.”
Cutout pieces of red paper in the shape of feet lead students to the back of the building where the shop is located. The guiding footsteps keep students away from the upstairs offices and the basement stuffed with clothing and donations to be sorted.
The building is old and creaks with steps. Still, it’s full of life and stuff which manages to serve around 1,200 students a year.
As a senior biology and conservation major, Smolen found a home in the office which helped him both prepare for his career and improve his community.
“This job has really honed that desire for me,” he said. “Seeing people that are so passionate about sustainability and these things that are benefitting the planet and just good for the environment and just being around a community of people that have the same mentality about that is really invigorating and really drives me to continue to want to do this.”
Smolen said everyone is a stakeholder in the environment.
The first step is to reduce, reuse and recycle one more can or plastic bottle or piece of paper out of the landfill stream.
Spring move-out
In early May, just as it is every year, more students were donating items from their dorms to the Office of Sustainability.
The moving trucks park nearby the entrances to each dorm on the ISU campus, just behind the large dumpsters.
"Don't Dump ... Donate!" reads large signs by each dumpster, hoping to inspire students to give their hand-me-downs a second life.
Sophomore Crystal O'Connor was one student at Watterson Towers giving away dishware, some clothes and a mattress pad.
"I didn't need this, didn't want to throw it away. Same thing with the bowl and the coat, didn't want to throw them away," the game design major said. "Other people could use them."
As opposed to selling or throwing away the items, O'Connor said donating gave her a better feeling after getting rid of her things.
"I hope this stuff can go to people who need these things," she said.
Perhaps those items will be picked from loosely organized piles come this August by students who need them. Either way, the Front Yard FreeCycle at ISU will start the year again next year.
Sustainability skills are worth reusing.
