As the school year comes to a close in Iowa City, dumpsters fill with trash bags, discarded furniture, and barely used decor — signs of a growing “throwaway culture” that is continuing to grow among college students. 

The University of Iowa is working to address these concerns by implementing donation programs at UI residence halls by partnering with Goodwill of the Heartland.

From rugs and storage bins to free T-shirts and decorative pillows, many items purchased at the start of students’ first year are thrown out months later, often due to overbuying and the pressures of move-out week, UI students said. 

For UI first-year student Sarah Blake, deciding what to keep and what to get rid of is a practical process for her. 

Blake said she makes purchasing decisions based on the durability of the product.

“I am planning on throwing out my rug because it has so much hair in it, and it’s gross,” Blake said. “I want to give my mattress topper to an incoming freshman because I won’t need it next year, and it is in good shape.” 

Blake said some purchases made at the beginning of the year proved unnecessary and were not used as much as she had anticipated. 

According to the Rachel Carson Council, an environmental group that focuses on sustainability, the average college student produces 640 pounds of waste annually, most of which occurs during the move-out process. 

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“My roommate bought a ton of decorative pillows for her bed, and we don’t use any of them,” she said. “They are stuffed behind our couch. I also brought picture frames I wanted to hang on the wall with command strips, and they all fell and ripped the paint off.” 

Hayden Gamble, a UI third-year student and resident assistant in Currier Residence Hall, said the most common items he sees thrown away are futons, fridges, and ottomans. Gamble advised any incoming freshman to make sure they are buying dorm furniture they will actually use. 

That pattern of overbuying and quick disposal, Gamble said, often stems from inexperience and uncertainty surrounding what dorm life actually requires. 

This experience is common for many first-year students adjusting to dorm life, Amy Colbert, a UI professor and faculty director of the Social Impact Community in the Tippie College of Business, said. 

Colbert said big-box stores like Target attract customers because they provide convenience and inexpensive products. 

“Then I think people are more likely to just throw those away, partly because the move-out process is also a little overwhelming,” she said. 

She said timing plays a major role in the number of items being discarded during the move-out process. 

With finals week coinciding with move-out, she said students often lack the time or resources to donate unused items. 

“There’s no easy way to donate things,” Colbert said. “If there is something students didn’t use or don’t want to take home with them, it gets tossed in the nearest dumpster.” 

Gamble said the residence halls are beginning a new partnership with Goodwill of the Heartland. 

The residence halls are hosting a donation truck that will make stops at each of the residence halls between May 1-15. 

The trucks will allow students to drop off used items in the trucks instead of discarding them in the trash. 

The location schedule has not been released by the university at the time of publication. 

“Now that we have Goodwill coming, hopefully now people will put futons and other dorm stuff in the trucks,” Gamble said. “I’m happy the residence halls are creating a way to make donating for students easier.”

Students also say the pressure to overprepare contributes to the problem. Christina McKelvy, a UI first-year student, said uncertainty about dorm living led her to buy more than she needed.

“There is definitely pressure to get certain dorm essentials, and I honestly think that just comes from the panic of moving to a new place and living without your parents for the first time,” McKelvy said. “I just wanted to be prepared for anything and everything.” 

This preparation often leads to these items piling up and eventually getting thrown away. McKelvy said she brought a shoe rack she did not end up using and has been shoved under her bed for months. 

She also had a lot of unnecessary storage containers, especially for food and her desk. Colbert said these purchasing habits are often tied to anxiety.

“Sometimes I think that overconsumption is used to address situations in which we’re feeling anxiety,” she said. “That sometimes happens as we’re thinking about going away to college and what we might need.” 

According to the National Retail Federation, the average college freshman spends $1,365 for their upcoming school year. Dorm furnishings, according to the report, are in the second largest category of spending, only surpassed by electronics. On average, students spend $359.49 per year on electronics and $192.40 for dorm and apartment furnishings. 

While some purchases, like decorations that can make a dorm room feel more like home, can be meaningful, Colbert emphasized the importance of reusing rather than disposing. 

“When you’re done with those things, finding a way to allow somebody else to reuse them is definitely preferable to throwing them away,” Colbert said. 

Colbert said certain categories of waste appear more frequently than others. Colbert pointed to specific items that lose their usefulness when students move out. 

“I do think there are a lot of dorm room accessories, organizational systems, crates, and those sorts of things that maybe work in that space, but they’re not going to work in an apartment,” Colbert said. “And often they’re plastics that are thrown away, and plastics have a negative impact on the environment.” 

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, more than 1500 species have been known to ingest plastics due to plastic taking between 100 to 1,000 years to decompose. 

McKelvy said she is making efforts to reduce waste during move-out, such as selling their futon instead of
discarding it and donating dorm room decorations. 

“Don’t buy anything you don’t already use,” McKelvy said. “If it isn’t in your house you grew up in, chances are you won’t need it in your dorm room either.”