Colleges turn students' trash into cash for charity

Boston College's Cleansweep program aims to make it as easy as possible for students to recycle their belongings. They don't even have to take them to a collection spot; they just leave their excess stuff in their rooms to be collected by volunteers.

The discards end up in the college's athletic center. There, John McLaughlin, who started the program with his wife 16 18 years ago, manages a team of volunteers, including members of his family and many BC alumni and staff. They unload and sort the mountains of items.

So far this year, the haul covers more than a basketball court, and there are still more dorms to empty. Among the haul: a four-foot-high mound of clothing, a thicket of lamps, a surprising number of stuffed animals, and enough nonperishable food to stock a corner store.

Notable finds this year include a set of golf clubs and two mannequins.

All of the items will be gone in a couple of days when BC opens the gym to a number of carefully vetted community groups, including domestic violence shelters, homeless groups, and Head Start.

Mr. McLaughlin and his wife, Catherine Morley, both BC graduates, began the program when they came to the college to attend graduation ceremonies one year and were shocked at the amount and quality of things that students had thrown away.

They had been working with needy people as a part of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps and were disturbed by the idea that so much food and other usable items would go to waste. "[My wife] brought the moral outrage, and I brought the organizational skills," says McLaughlin, who views the entire project as "a large gift from the Boston College community to the greater Boston community."

At Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, the focus is on generating cash for charity. For the past eight years, the college has enlisted the help of volunteers from dozens of community organizations. The volunteers put in hours collecting and sorting items and staff a gigantic yard sale. The proceeds are divided among the nonprofits based on how much time they put in to the effort. Last year, the sale brought in $40,000 for area groups.

Before the program began, Bowdoin put 40 10 (40-yard) dumpsters around campus at move-out time, some of which were emptied twice, says Keisha Payson, Bowdoin's sustainability coordinator. Now, collection boxes are placed in dorms for students to fill with items they no longer need.

"It's a win-win-win," says Ms. Payson. "The housekeepers like it because there is less stuff to deal with, the community likes the great bargains, and students like it because they feel bad about putting stuff in the dumpster."

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