Yard Sale to Recycle Discarded UMaine Student Property
Contact: Joe Carr at (207) 581-3571
ORONO — When the University of Maine’s nearly 4,000 residence hall students moved out for the summer this month, they left behind seven tons of furniture, electronic equipment, appliances, clothing and other miscellaneous items. Rather than take this material to landfills or burn it, UMaine hopes to recycle it at this year’s UMaine Black Bear Clean Sweep Yard Sale. The event is scheduled for Thursday May 31-Monday June 4, 8 a.m.-4 p.m. each day, at UMaine’s Knox Hall.
UMaine Property Management is partnering with the Bodwell Volunteer Center to dispose of these items, with the proceeds benefiting student volunteer programs and activities.
“The goal is to try and recycle as many of the resources as possible,” says Lyn Dexter, assistant director of Student Employment and the Bodwell Volunteer Center.
As much as 1,000 pounds of non-perishable food items are being donated to Crossroads Resource Center in Old Town, which maintains a soup kitchen and food bank. What the university can use – the equivalent of nearly 100 gallons of laundry detergent, for instance – is separated out and used by university staff for institutional purposes. Hundreds of articles of clothing, some still new, previously have been donated to thrift stores from one end of the state to the other, says Dexter.