Station Archive

Late each August, thousands of college students move in and out of apartments all over town. The mass move generates piles of cast-offs that students no longer want—furniture, clothes and housewares, but also unexpected stuff like anime, Ikea furniture and gift cards—and could turn the city into one big sloppy flea market if the volume got out of control. For 15 years, the city has organized the Apartment Move-Out Waste Reduction Program to tame the tide. Today Jennifer Gilbert, the city’s conservation coordinator, and Marisa Schafer, one of the volunteers who make it work, discuss how it all comes together, the need for semi-secrecy ... and the things people leave behind.