Behind the Scenes

Benefits of the Trash to Treasure Program

It’s for a good cause:
Trash to Treasure makes it easy for students to help the local community, and all proceeds go to local charities supported by the Centre County United Way.

It’s good for the environment:
It reduces the amount of waste the University puts into the landfill.

It’s good for town/gown relations:
The program gives residents of the State College community the opportunity to purchase usable items at a very low cost.

The Collection and Sorting Effort
Office of Physical Plant employees, assisted by United Way volunteers, collected items from the residence halls and transported them to Beaver Stadium, where they were sorted by volunteers. Key elements of the effort included:

• the Office of Physical Plant worked closely with Housing to ensure that pick-ups were scheduled only when barrels were full, thus minimizing labor/equipment costs
• call-in pick-up requests were accepted in emergency situations only
• University-owned furniture not accepted by Salvage and Surplus was also donated to the sale
• in preparation for sorting, student volunteers set up 400 tables in Beaver Stadium during Finals Week
• residence hall collections started in the middle of Finals Week, when the barrels were mostly full
• donations were picked up on 12 different days over a three-week period (including two Saturdays) up to a few days prior to the sale
• a United Way volunteer coordinator recruited and supervised 400 volunteers (many from agencies funded by the United Way) who sorted donations and set up for the event
• a team of volunteers sorted and rolled all of the 2,500+ donated rugs

The Sale
Several thousand shoppers—including 2,200 who paid the $5 “early-bird” admission fee—attended the sale, which ran from 7:30 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. on Memorial Day Saturday. Strategies employed on sale day included:

• the sale was staged UNDER Beaver Stadium, and items were grouped in different “departments” (clothes, toys, etc.)
• prices were marked down aggressively throughout the day, as the primary goal of the sale was to reduce the amount headed to the landfill
• 100 volunteers worked three separate three-hour shifts throughout the day
• unsold items were donated to local charities

The Results
The Trash to Treasure program has had a very significant impact on our community. Annually, this event:

• averages 190 tons in move-out waste—stream—the largest two-day waste stream produced at Penn State's University Park campus.
• recycles 42 percent of the move-out waste stream
• avoids $4,480 in landfill tip fees and hauling
• saves over $14,000 in labor and equipment costs
• brings in over 500 volunteers

First Year (2002)
72 tons donated
$15,000 raised

Second Year (2003)
69 tons donated
$37,000 raised

Third Year (2004)
80 tons donated
$54,673 raised

Fourth Year (2005)
73 tons donated
$54,607 raised

Third Year (2006)
66 tons donated
$49,678 raised

Sixth Year (2007)
65.4 tons donated
$49,001 raised