This year, South Campus residents and BU students who live off campus can donate items during Move-out at one of four pop-up tent locations. Photo by Chris McIntosh for BU Sustainability

Sustainability

Donate Your Old Clothes, Housewares, and Mattress Pads during Move-Out

Sustainability initiative Goodwill, Not Landfill honors BU alum founder

Are you stressing about lugging a winter coat, boots, and six sweaters across the country for that new job you just took? Are you moving in with new roommates and have extra coffeepots or Keurigs? Donate the items to a Boston-area nonprofit instead. It’s easy, thanks to BU Sustainability’s Goodwill, Not Landfill initiative, which diverts student belongings from landfills to promote environmental sustainability. 

Students have until the end of Move-out (May 20), to donate clothing, shoes, accessories, housewares, decorations, kitchenware, mattress pads and toppers, and small appliances. New this year, textile recycling bins around campus will accept ripped, dirty, or stained clothing, and all bedding, blankets, and pillows. The BU Food Pantry will take unopened nonperishables and individually packaged food. Food waste, perishable food, and any large furniture can be dropped off at one of the South Campus pop-up tents. 

For those who wish to store or surrender their bike or scooter, the BU Cycle Kitchen (BUCK) will provide summer storage for $25. All bike donations will either go to local charities or to BUCK. 

Donation bins are located in every major residence hall, as well as at 516-522 Park Drive on South Campus, 150 Riverway, the Medical School Residence, and 890 and 1019 Commonwealth Ave., with “GOATS”—the Goodwill, Not Landfill Operational Assistance Team—stationed to help with sorting. 

(See the full list of location details below.)

“The Move-out window is the period of the year where we have our highest volume of waste generation across the entire University,” says Sam Moller, BU Sustainability assistant director of communications. “Last year, about 10 percent of the University’s waste was generated just in the month of May alone. Goodwill, Not Landfill is really providing an outlet for our students to donate and also recycle things that [usually] can’t be donated as they move out.”

Goodwill was founded in 1902 by Reverend Edgar J. Helms (STH 1893), who collected used household items and clothing in wealthier areas of Boston, then trained and hired the less fortunate to repair and sell the used goods. Students piling tons of goods into donation bins in their residence halls is a far cry from Helms going door-to-door searching for donations—according to his official Goodwill bio—to help a South Boston mission in the late 1800s and early 1900s. 

“Goodwill started here at the School of Theology,” Moller says. “With this initiative, we’re helping, in part, to continue that 150-year legacy that was started [in the schoo] just next to Marsh Plaza, which is a really cool full circle moment.”

Last year alone, the program saw 120,000 pounds of items donated to Boston’s Morgan Memorial Goodwill, according to the Goodwill, Not Landfill website. 

James Harder, director of Morgan Memorial Goodwill’s communications and public affairs, says the donated items are stored, tagged, and sold at one of the 15 stores in Massachusetts, including the Goodwill store on Commonwealth Avenue. 

“Donations from BU support this mission by helping individuals in our job training and career programs find jobs and by making low-cost quality goods available to individuals and families looking to stretch their dollars,” Harder says. 

He says Morgan Memorial Goodwill values its relationship with BU because beyond the Goodwill, Not Landfill initiative, the nonprofit also works with the College of Communication’s student-run PRLab every semester. He adds that other Goodwill organizations across the country and beyond have looked at Goodwill, Not Landfill as a model for similar donation drives.

“We often think of sustainability as how we’re going to better our planet in the long run, but we also forget about the sustainability of ourselves,” Moller says. “The decluttering that many students do at the end of the year during Move-out is part of personal well-being. [Goodwill, Not Landfill] is an opportunity to give back to the BU community and to help those who need food or are facing food insecurity right now.” 

Goodwill, Not Landfill bins are in Danielsen Hall, Myles Standish Hall, Kilachand Hall, The Towers, Warren Towers, Student Village I, Student Village II, Claflin Hall, Sleeper Hall, and Rich Hall, and at 516-522 Park Drive, 890 Commonwealth Ave., Hojo, 150 Riverway, the Medical School Residence, and 1019 Commonwealth Ave. Donations of clothing, shoes, decorations, kitchenware, housewares, small appliances, and much more are accepted. For more information on what can be donated, where, and how to sort your items, please refer to the Goodwill, Not Landfill website.