The donation program is a partnership between the city of Austin, the University of Texas at Austin office of sustainability and office of the dean of students with the goal of finding new homes for used items as college students move out of their residences at the end of July. The program in place also helps support the city’s goal to reduce the amount of waste put in landfills by 90% before 2040, according to program lead Megan Kaplon
Council adopted the zero waste goal to reduce the amount of trash sent to landfills by 90% by the year of 2040.
The context
The initiative began in fall of 2017 after the city saw an overflow of unwanted furniture and materials being placed on the side of the road or in overflowing dumpsters, said Kaplon. Since then, MoveOutATX has diverted 249 tons of material from landfills and recycled 1,718 items of furniture into new homes.
“This caused a lot of health and safety hazards as far as things in the right of way and pests,” Kaplan said. “Then from our perspective at ARR [Austin Resource Recovery], also we hate to see that many things that clearly are reusable and are getting thrown away.”
The specifics
The donation stations will be open from 11 a.m.-6 p.m. daily until the end of July. Donation station locations include:
- Camino Flats, 2810 Salado St.
- Escala Condos, 1000 W 26th St.
- Lenox Condos, 915 W 23rd St.
- 26 West, 600 W 26th St.
- UT Whitaker Courts, 287 W 51st St.
“I think it's easier to say what MoveOutATX does not accept than what they do,” Former Campus Environmental Center program coordinator Jessi Drummond said. “They obviously don't take trash, anything that is broken, damaged or heavily soiled. They don't take construction materials, any large appliances [or] prescription medications.”
Key players
For the donation collection process, MoveOutATX partners with organizations each year to collect and distribute items to places they are needed most. Participants this year include Salvation Army Family Stores, Goodwill Central Texas, Arms of Hope, Austin Creative Reuse, the UT Outpost and more.
In 2022, MoveOutATX expanded to offer Austin residents access to a free furniture market, supplied from the day’s donations. The free furniture market is open every day July 26-31 from 6:30-8:15 p.m. Kaplon said that the city’s partners had difficulties managing the large amount of furniture being donated within a short period of time, so MoveOutATX pivoted to accommodate a different way of distributing back into the community.
“Since furniture is a big reason why this program exists in the first place, it's one of the main things that we see being thrown away in this time,” Kaplon said. “We had to come up with something different and the solution is the free furniture market.”
At the market, each attendee will receive a ticket that can be used to hold their place in line and later claim two free furniture items. Kaplon said MoveOutATX coordinators will not distribute tickets before 6 p.m. and it is helpful if people do not arrive early to mitigate congestion and difficulties for volunteers. The market has priority access tickets for social service organizations and their clients to ensure that those in need have the opportunity to shop the donated furniture first, Kaplon said.
Get involved
MoveOutATX also welcomes community volunteers to help facilitate the free furniture market. More information about volunteer guidelines can be found here. Volunteers are needed to set up for the market, unload furniture, direct traffic and help people claim their items. For their work, volunteers will receive snacks and drinks, a towel and a discount package for local businesses.
“I worked with different vendors to put together a volunteer perk package with a bunch of coupons for local businesses like Amy's Ice Cream, Kesos Tacos, Torchy’s [Tacos], those kinds of places,” Campus Environmental Center staff coordinator Lilly Young said. “Every volunteer gets to walk away with a fun local coupon kit for all their hard work.”
Another point of view
The hope of this annual event is not just to distribute donations to community members in need, it's also to get people to “start thinking a little bit differently about their consumption,” Kaplon said. Through Austin Resource Recover, she hopes to educate people about donation opportunities and waste habits.
“Even though we're trying to make it easy to donate, when you're moving out, if you can change the way that you're consuming on a regular basis, then you won't have as much stuff that you have to throw out at the end of your time in your apartment,” Kaplon said. “Especially for college students who know that their time there is temporary. Let's try not to accumulate so many things in the time that we're there.”
