Bridgewater College
OP-T2-43: Move-Out Waste Reduction

Bridgewater has a program to reduce residence hall move-out waste, At the end of the academic year when students are packing up their belongings and moving out, a lot of waste comes from perfectly good merchandise that could be donated, refurbished, etc. Eagle Exchange is basically our version of craigslist or Freecycle where students can sell or give away pretty much anything that would normally have gone in the trash. Students receive email showing what is for sale, what is already sold and what is wanted. Bridgewater's New Community Project club runs and monitors this program with the help of the Bridgewater IT Center. This program has been run for two years, and it has been a huge success. New Community Project also set up an exchange location where students could take unwanted merchandise (mostly stuff that wasn't worth putting on Eagle Exchange.) Students take from the collection of items at the location, and anything left over was taken to a local thrift store that benefited the community. This exchange location was tried two years ago to coincide with the Eagle Exchange, and last year New Community Project held a clothing exchange at the end of the year to coincide with Eagle Exchange. Similarly, in the middle of the year, one of the co-ed service fraternities held their first-ever clothing exchange. Both clothing exchanges were set up to where individuals could take slightly used, unwanted clothing, then come and get "new" free clothing. In addition, NCP collected 13 pounds of school supplies at the end of the 2010-2011 academic year as part of the students' move-out waste production initiative and delivered these supplies to Rockingham Education Foundation Inc. (REFI). The Foundation is a 501(c) 3, non-profit organization, dedicated to raising funds and materials to support and facilitating programs to enhance education for students.