Brigham Young University's Sustainability Office held a stuff swap in the Wilkinson Student Center on Friday, April 3.
This was the last event for BYU Green Week, which aimed to celebrate campus sustainability. Students and individuals donated clothes, shoes and items in preparation for the event. Some even brought their donations the day of to be added to the piles of donated items.
The items were displayed on tables for students passing by to take anything they wanted for free.
Eliza Freestone, a computer science major at BYU, had the idea for a stuff swap and decided to make it happen.
“We did two last year, and this is our third. And it’s been really fun!” Freestone said.
The stuff swap ran from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Olivia Burns is the outreach coordinator for the BYU Sustainability Office and helps to increase student engagement and increasing awareness.
Burns said the main role of the office of sustainability is to improve sustainability, and it hopes to be a leader in the West in terms of sustainability on college campuses.
According to the BYU Sustainability Office website, BYU has a sustainability plan with five goals to elevate earthly stewardship among BYU community members through learning, service and ownership of solutions.
To advertise the stuff swap, Burns said they collaborated with BYUSA, Y-serve and Cougs on Call to make it happen.
Boxes were set up at the Life Sciences Building, the Kennedy Center and the Ballard Center for people to put their donations.
“Mostly, people get really excited about the idea of getting new clothes and cleaning out their closets. And it’s an easy way to get people interested in sustainability to be like, oh you can reuse clothes and reduce waste in the fashion industry,” Burns said.
Along with the donations from before the event, Burns said a lot of people dropped off garbage bags of clothes throughout the day. There were even a handful of pillows donated as well.
At the end of the event, whatever did not get taken was donated to local donation centers.
“It’s been so fun to see everyone get excited about the clothes they find and learn more about sustainability along the way,” Burns said.
BYU student Taryn Furness wanted a way to fit service in her busy schedule, so she signed up for Cougs on Call, which is how BYU sustainability got its volunteers.
Furness got a text about the opportunity to serve at the stuff swap and signed up to help.
“I thought it was super cool. I think in the future we could maybe put a booth up a couple weeks beforehand to raise more awareness,” Furness said. “Because a lot of people are coming and they’re like, ‘Oh, I wish I would’ve known, I would’ve brought things.’”
Burns said the stuff swap happens about once a semester. They try to bring it back whenever they can.
“I think it’s a really cool opportunity we have to turn our environmental stewardship into a daily action rather than just an idea in the gospel,” Burns said.
