Ball State University
OP-T2-43: Move-Out Waste Reduction

The Office of Housing and Residence Life, in collaboration with Facilities and Planning Management (FPM), creates collection sites for items that can be reused or recycled by the institution in order to reduce move-out waste. FPM collects cardboard, lumber, and blocks/concrete bricks at eight housing locations during move-out periods. These areas are easily identifiable with orange or black construction fence material and signage. • Woodworth, Park, and DeHority – grassy area by the Woodworth loading dock • Noyer- east side lawn area • Lafollette - north side of the loading dock by the extra roll-off. • Studebaker West – grassy area by bike racks towards Stu East. • Johnson A - by the loading dock • Johnson B - by the loading dock • Elliott - on the south side by the parking area • Kinghorn – back of the building towards the parking lot FPM staff pick up items from these sites twice per day with an extra pick up on Saturday morning prior to graduation. The collection sites are typically setup by May 2nd, and announcements of the event are posted two weeks prior. Additional recycling collection sites are created inside the halls to collect plastics, aluminum, steel cans, and paper. The Office of Housing and Residence Life also coordinates with their Hall Directors to designate donation collection sites in each hall for non perishable foods, clothing, small appliances, textbooks and unopened toiletries. The custodial staff of each building removes and stores donation items on a daily basis to prevent theft of items and to prevent unsightly overflow. Typically the donation sites within the buildings are setup two weeks prior to graduation. The donated items are given to the local Muncie Mission Ministries. See website http://www.munciemission.org/ The move-out donation sites last year collectively diverted 11,562 pounds of material from the landfill. The student-led Golden Key Honor Society at Ball State University also sets up ten used book collection sites in partnership with Better World Books http://www.betterworldbooks.com several weeks prior to move-out and graduation. The locally-donated books are re-used, re-sold and recycled to benefit global literacy programs - keeping books out of the local waste stream. In the past several years, the Golden Key Honor Society has collected roughly 882 books, keeping 1,200 pounds of material out of the local landfill.