Some CSU Monterey Bay students were surprised at what they saw discarded during last year’s spring rush to clean out dorm rooms and move off campus for the summer.

“Students will leave all kinds of things,” said Max Lorenz, the student recycling coordinator. Spotted last year were video games, computers, television sets and refrigerators.

But more than electronics get tossed aside. Clothing and other useful items are thrown in trash bins when they could be donated to organizations that serve the community.

With that in mind, Lorenz helped to organize CSUMB’s zero waste move-out program, taking place May 16 through 18.

Between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. on those days, students can follow the signs and sidewalk chalk markings to three sorting stations located between the residence halls on main campus and North Quad.

During last year’s end-of-school event, 1,800 students moving out of the residence halls diverted 17 tons of recyclable and reusable material from the landfill.

However, Lorenz pointed out, 16 tons of trash still found its way to the landfill – most of which was reusable or recyclable.

Hope Services, a local nonprofit organization that provides support services for developmentally disabled people, will be on hand to collect:

• E-waste: If it plugs in, working or not, it can be recycled • Reusable household items: Clothing, pots and pans, dishes, books, lamps, sporting goods, DVDs, clocks, luggage, picture frames

Other items will be sorted into:

• Furniture • Household hazardous waste: anything with “caution/warning/hazardous” on the label • Recyclables: Plastic, glass, paper/cardboard, cans

The only items that should be going into trash bins are Styrofoam, broken glass and ceramics, and anything that has been contaminated with food (such as pizza boxes).

Zero waste move-out is just one way students, staff and faculty members are working together to make CSUMB a more sustainable campus. To learn more about the university’s sustainability efforts, click here.