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Only a small portion of one year's Clean
Sweep items collected in Walker Lounge. |
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Responsible living, social
responsibility, and reuse
About
The ReCoop and Clean Sweep aim to promote values of
responsible living, social responsibility, and reuse within
the Pomona College community. This joint venture is overseen
by the student workers who run the ReCoop store, the
Sustainability Integration Office, the Environmental Affairs
Commissioner of the Associated Students of Pomona College (ASPC)
Senate, and the Office of Campus Life.
History
At the end of every school year at Pomona College in
Claremont, CA, a huge amount of perfectly good lamps, rugs,
clothes, books, etc. used to be left behind on campus
because students – with the majority of them being from out
of state – were either unable to secure proper storage for
these items or simply did not want them anymore.
Unfortunately, all Pomona could do to alleviate themselves
of this frustrating problem was to request housekeeping to
throw away every single item – with absolutely no attention
paid to the possibilities of recycling or reuse.
Fortunately, 3 juniors recognized that this as an incredible
waste and thus committed themselves to writing up a proposal
to submit to Pomona’s Sustainability team to create Clean
Sweep. The proposal was approved, along with a generous
funding commitment from the college, which helped further
the Clean Sweep initiative to create the actual ReCoop
storefront.
The ReCoop was originally founded on Pomona College’s campus
in the spring of 2007 to promote the concepts of
sustainability and reuse, with Clean Sweep 2007 being its
first kick-off event. The items collected during this event
were then set up in the actual storefront for the official
grand opening of the ReCoop in February 2008.
Clean Sweep
Clean Sweep is a sustainability event held at the end of
every spring semester where 25 students – paid to work a
total of 35 hours each over the course of 5 days –
physically and tediously go through every single dorm room
on campus to collect as many good and functioning items that
have been abandoned or donated as possible. It takes place
the week after graduation, after the majority of the student
population has left for the summer, with the student workers
living on campus in the student residence halls. This effort
helps find new homes for those items collected and greatly
assists the housekeepers, who face the daunting task of
cleaning the dorms for summer use. Items that have high
resale value for the college community (fridges, fans,
lamps, rugs, furniture, and other décor) are stored on
campus over the summer. Other materials – like clothing,
shoes, and bedding – are given away to international aid
organizations, local charities and animal shelters.
Clean Sweep 2007 and 2008 each resulted in enough
inventories to fill two 40’x8’x10’ storage containers, two
15’x10’ storage rooms, and the 15’x8’ ReCoop store – from
top to bottom.
ReCoop
The ReCoop is the official storefront of the Clean Sweep
endeavor, working to further the concepts of sustainability
and reuse on campus. It is located in a small room on the
second floor of the Walker Residence Hall on Pomona’s north
campus. It is run by students for students and is open on a
weekly basis. The ReCoop accepts donations of useful items
(ranging from costumes to coffee makers, pencils to picture
frames) and sells them, as well as the many items collected
during Clean Sweep, at a nominal cost to other students. The
revenue generated covers the operation costs of the ReCoop
and Clean Sweep, which at this time are much greater than
revenue because overhead costs are high. When and if the
venture earns a “profit,” that money will be directly given
to local charities on a monthly basis.
Fall Sale
The Fall Sale is the ReCoop’s main event on campus, where
the items collected during Clean Sweep are sold to incoming
freshman. It takes place during the weekend of freshman
move-in, to take advantage of the fact that students are on
campus with their parents, eager to furnish their new rooms.
It is located in front of the Pendleton Pool Center, right
behind the freshman dorms – a prime location to immediately
and easily move big items, such as couches and fridges,
straight into the dorms. This successfully makes the ReCoop
a first resort for students to purchase new furniture and
room décor, instead of going straight to such places as
Target, Wal-Mart, and Bed, Bath, & Beyond where they would
be purchasing entirely new items to bring onto campus and
contributing to an even greater carbon footprint. During
this time, the actual ReCoop storefront is closed and
employee effort is concentrated at the Pendleton Pool
location.
Fall Sale pt. 2 takes place the following weekend and is
targeted more so at returning students. This time around,
the actual ReCoop storefront will be open and the Pendleton
Pool location closed. Efforts will be focused more on
selling the inventory’s smaller items – such as posters,
pillows, and cleaning supplies – simply because of the fact
that most returning students will already have futons,
lamps, and couches. The ReCoop also offers extended hours
during the following week to provide convenience to those
students arriving on campus later.
The ReCoop’s first Fall Sale in August 2008 successfully
brought in $8300 worth of revenue and, more importantly, put
into motion a tradition of having freshman purchase their
couches, fridges, etc. from the ReCoop. Fall Sale pt. 2
brought in another $900 worth of revenue, contributing to a
total of $9100 during the first two weeks of operation in
the ’08-’09 school year.
Miscellaneous
sales
After the main Fall Sale event, the ReCoop returns to its
normal operating hours from 7-9PM on Sundays and Wednesday
during most weeks of the semester. ReCoop also hosts a
mid-semester sale event each semester targeted at selling
items that do not normally sell well during regular hours –
such as clothes, costumers, miscellaneous toy items, etc.
They are held in conjunction of the two main party events on
campus – Harwood Halloween during the fall semester and
Smiley ‘80s during spring semester – with extended hours to
appeal to the student population.
The ReCoop’s first Halloween Sale in October 2008 brought in
an estimated $200 worth of revenue with a number of clothing
and costume items – items that would otherwise never have
been sold – having been cleared out at about $.50 or $1 per
piece.
Reuse
All consumer goods have upstream and downstream consequences
that we are often unaware of. Consider a refrigerator:
metals must be mined and processed, plastics must be created
out of petroleum, and refrigerants must be produced in order
for the refrigerator to function. Each of these materials
requires energy for production and has waste products.
Additionally, it must be shipped from its country of origin
to the US and then transported from a store to Pomona. And
on the back end, a refrigerator that ends up discarded in a
landfill takes up space and may have deleterious byproducts
as its materials break down.
By donating your items to the ReCoop, you prevent downstream
harms. By looking first to the ReCoop (as well as to
free-cycling and other thrift stores) when you need
something rather than purchasing it new at a store, you are
reduce upstream harms and resource use.
Where is the ReCoop?
The ReCoop store is located on the second floor of Walker
Lounge. From the north staircase, it is the last door on the
right. From the south staircase, it is the first door on the
left on the catwalk that runs along the lounge.
Contacts
Sustainability Integration Office
sustainability@pomona.edu
909-607-1765
Stephanie Pham (Manager) -
stp02006@mymail.pomona.edu
Kazandra De La Torre (Manager) -
kmd02006@mymail.pomona.edu
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