The DUMP 2011

Photo credit: Jonathan Rausseo

It's that time of the year again. As all the students head home for the summer there is a mountain of stuff left behind to prove that "I was here".

Two years ago the Office of Campus Sustainability collected approximately 1.7 tonnes of stuff; last year it was about 2.3 tonnes; this year... who knows. One thing is for certain though, there will always be more stuff.

The Dump and Run (yeah I am know... who named this thing anyways) is technically an annual campus move out event. In reality it is really a story of perspectives an realities.

Perspective #1 - The Student (in rez)

It is the end of the year, I have 5 exams and 2 papers to hand in. My last exam is on the second last day of the month. I have to leave on the first of May by noon and there are still 2 parties to go to and too many friends to say goodbye to. On my last day in rez my parents arrive and I have exactly 15 mins to pack everything into the car before we leave. I can't take everything...

Perspective #2 - Housing Services

There are over 3000 students living in rez. The last day that they can stay in the residences is May 1st and in less than 1 week we have to every apartment cleaned out and ready to rent as hotel units for the summer crowd. That means we have to clean out about 600 apartments a day. We don't have enough time to sort through every half-filled apartment, we barely have time to get them cleaned.

Perspective #3 - Katimavik

Every day starting in mid April Brigitte and Jon make us go to every residence and pick up boxes of donations. We put up posters, go door to door speaking with residents, and write blogs and tweets about how people can donate. By the time we get to the end of April, we have to do about 2 pick-ups a day. After the Dump and Run is over we spend the entire day sorting through donations and packaging them for the various charities.

Perspective #4 - Student Sustainability Coordinators

After my exams are finished I start working for the Office of Campus Sustainability full-time. I call up charities and find out what they need most. Brigitte and Jon say that we only give stuff that people can use right away (emergency supplies they call them). After the Dump and Run is over I will spend my days weighing all the donations, sorting everything into boxes, and then delivering it to charities.

Perspective #5 - The Office of Campus Sustainability

Every year just as RecyceMania ends we get ready for the Dump and Run. We throw everything we have at it, all our volunteers and all our employees. We reserve the basement of LeBlanc and fill it up with donations we collect from the residences; sometimes we even do a little dumpster diving. Every laundry card we find we use to clean the clothes we collect. Every textbook we sell back we use the money to recognize our volunteers. And everything we can't donate to a charity in need we give back to the campus community through the Free Store.

-jon

http://thesustainabilitree.blogspot.com