Give and Go: Move Out 2013

College students urged to donate responsibly; recognize social impact

News provided by

Apr 29, 2013, 11:09 ET

ROCKVILLE, Md., April 29, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- As the college school year comes to an end, students leaving campus often leave perfectly good clothing, electronics, books and furniture in overflowing campus dumpsters. With an estimated three million students living in campus housing at 2,100 colleges and universities nationwide, that is a lot of reusable goods.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20090716/DC47803LOGO )

In an effort to address this problem, Keep America Beautiful (KAB) is partnering with Goodwill® this spring to pilot the Give and Go: Move Out 2013 collection program on five college campuses. Working in conjunction with the College and University Recycling Coalition (CURC), the initiative encourages college students to take positive action by donating their unwanted books, clothing, electronics, kitchen utensils, and other dorm items as they pack up and leave for their summer break. After students donate their goods, those items are sold at a local Goodwill, and the revenue is used to fund job training and community-based services for people who face challenges to finding employment.

"Communities nationwide are seeing piles of everyday household goods ending up in landfills," said Jim Gibbons, president and CEO of Goodwill Industries International. "We know that college students are conservation-minded and willing to do something on behalf of the planet if it's convenient and fun. Give and Go is an easy solution that offers tangible results."

Donation efforts at five colleges and universities this spring will establish best practices that can help other schools create and improve their own collection efforts. The five pilot schools for the 2013 program are: Creighton University (Nebraska); Northern Illinois University; University of Toledo (Ohio); Franklin College (Indiana); and Trinity University (Texas). Each of the local Goodwill agencies will drop off large blue containers to be placed in the lobby of each residence hall, and students will be encouraged to donate items that they're not taking home. The schools are receiving additional marketing and technical support to help increase student participation and recovery of donated items.

"We're excited to partner with Goodwill on this project," said Matt McKenna, president and CEO of Keep America Beautiful. "Give and Go is a fantastic opportunity to demonstrate to students that waste reduction means more than simply recycling cans and bottles. Working with Goodwill to pilot this collection program will help us develop best practices that can help many other schools in future years."

The process of recovering clothing and other reusable goods discarded by students has positive social and environmental impacts. A single box of books can provide 13 hours of on-the-job training and eight desk lamps can provide an hour-and-a-half of resume preparation to cite two examples. In addition, recycling broken and obsolete electronics in a responsible manner prevents heavy metals and other hazardous materials from being released into the environment. Through Give and Go, students will learn that putting reusable goods to a new use benefits the environment across the board by reducing the impact from manufacturing brand new alternative items.

Keep America Beautiful's involvement in the Give and Go program fulfills a commitment made through the Clinton Global Initiative-University (CGIU). The results of the five pilot events will be incorporated into a report submitted to CGIU in the summer of 2013.

About Goodwill Industries International
Goodwill Industries International is a network of 165 community-based agencies in the United States and Canada with 14 affiliates in 13 other countries. Goodwill is one of America's top 25 most inspiring companies (Forbes). Goodwill agencies are innovative and sustainable social enterprises that fund job training programs, employment placement services and other community-based programs by selling donated clothing and household items in more than 2,700 stores and online at shopgoodwill.com. Local Goodwill agencies also build revenue and create jobs by contracting with businesses and government to provide a wide range of commercial services, including packaging and assembly, food service preparation, and document imaging and shredding. In 2012, more than five million people in the United States and Canada benefited from Goodwill's career services. Goodwill channels 82 percent of its revenues directly into its programs and services.

To find a Goodwill near you, use the online locator at locator.goodwill.org, or call (800) GOODWILL. Follow us on Twitter: @GoodwillIntl and @GoodwillCapHill, and find us on Facebook: GoodwillIntl.

About Keep America Beautiful
Keep America Beautiful is the nation's leading nonprofit that brings people together to build and sustain vibrant communities. With a network of more than 1,200 affiliate and participating organizations including state recycling organizations, we work with millions of volunteers to take action in their communities. Keep America Beautiful offers solutions that create clean, beautiful public places, reduce waste and increase recycling, generate positive impact on local economies and inspire generations of environmental stewards. Through our programs and public-private partnerships, we engage individuals to take greater responsibility for improving their community's environment. For more information, visit kab.org.

SOURCE Goodwill Industries International