The lasting impact of Green Move Out

By Kelly Huth

On June 17, members of the Easton community were able to shop for new and gently used clothes, household goods, and small appliances through the West Ward Sale.

The aim of the sale is to reduce the amount of items sent to the landfill as part of the move out process. The second annual sale was organized by Lafayette College’s Office of Sustainability, in partnership with Landis Center for Community Engagement.

Items at the sale were donated by Lafayette students during Green Move Out—an initiative that since 2008 has recycled and redirected new and gently used items.

“Green Move Out and the West Ward Sale provide a great opportunity to decrease the number of items sent to the landfill while simultaneously serving a need for affordable goods in our local community,” says Samantha Smith, sustainability outreach and engagement manager. “The sale is pay-what-you-can, allowing individuals to set the price that works for their budget and in some cases, get items they otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford.”

Green Move Out

Smith explains the idea for Green Move Out came from students, faculty, and staff in an effort to reduce all the waste generated as students moved out.

“The event also brings together our Lafayette community and the local community to celebrate in the spirit of reuse, which is a wonderful thing to see.”

Green Move Out began in 2008, and students have been encouraged to donate their new and gently used items to the effort. POD containers and green bins are placed throughout campus to make it easier for students to donate items they no longer wish to keep. 

Melissa Adamson, climate action and circularity manager, says this year’s collection garnered 23% more donations than they’ve seen in previous years, collecting over 22,000 pounds of items. Once the donations came in, campus organizers spent the next several weeks sorting and preparing the donations, as well as setting up logistics for the sale. 

More donations meant the sale needed a bigger home this year. The Landis Center connected with partners at Easton Area School District and found a new home for the sale at Paxinosa Elementary School.

“Last year we were at Easton Area Community Center, but we outgrew the space,” Smith says. “Paxinosa is a key hub of the community serving the West Ward, and it allowed us to connect with an even broader audience.”

A group effort

Alanna Haldaman ’25 joined the Green Move Out effort this year in her role as the reuse and redistribution fellow for the Office of Sustainability. The biology major noted ever since arriving at Lafayette she’s been trying to reduce her environmental footprint and be a part of the bigger picture of circularity.

“I wanted to be a part of making sure that items end up back in their community where they are needed rather than a landfill,” Haldaman says.

As outlined in the College’s Climate Action Plan (CAP), Lafayette has set a goal to divert 60% of Lafayette’s waste away from landfills by 2035. Along with their community benefit, Green Move Out and other waste-related initiatives are all key to the success of meeting this goal.

More than 119 Lafayette volunteers from 17 different departments helped to sort items, prepping for the sale in record time. Smith says seven departments sponsored a half or full day of volunteering and brought their entire teams to help sort Green Move Out donations. Volunteers logged over 600 volunteer hours.

“Because of the help we had, when more than 40 people in the West Ward lost their homes to a fire (on Memorial Day), we were able to immediately fill two vans full of necessities to donate,” Haldaman says.

“Without all our volunteers, we wouldn’t have been able to respond as quickly,” Smith says.

Adamson estimates they found new homes for 4,000+ items, or over 9,000 pounds of items. Any remaining items leftover from the sale will be brought back to campus for the pay-what-you-can campus thrift store.