NYU, New School launch free stores to cut back on dorm room waste

Shop ’til you swap.

When Shannon Hughes saw the piles of discarded dorm-room furnishings that her fellow New School students ditched at the end of every school year, she always felt there had to be a better way to keep the scads of unwanted shower caddies, hangers, laundry baskets and lamps out of university dumpsters.

Then, in the spring of 2024, the senior film major decided to apply what she’d learned in a class entitled “Waste Injustice,” which focused on the outsized trash burden reportedly borne by lower-income areas, and how to address the imbalance.

Eager to do her part, Hughes recruited a few friends to help her go dorm to dorm, collecting every item she could, aiming to set up the school’s first-ever pop-up swap shop, ahead of the fall semester.

“I grew up in Vermont, where you give people the stuff you don’t need or you try to recycle it,” the 21-year-old told The Post. “Doing this reminds me of home and makes me feel like I’m making a difference in somebody’s life.”

On Saturday, Hughes will run The New School’s second annual “Free Sale,” a one-day-only event in the University Center building, open to anyone with a New School ID. 

Stocking everything from the usual dorm must-haves like fans and storage carts to the quirky, such as a fish-shaped stapler, a shopping cart — and even a leather whip — there’s something for everyone, Hughes said.

“We figured someone might want even the most unusual things that were left behind,” she explained. “And there will be some interesting things here for sure.”

Not to be left out of the action, a cross-Village competitor is trying out a similar initiative this year.

The NYU Swap Shop, which runs from Saturday, Aug. 23, through Saturday, Aug. 30, was implemented by three university departments, including the school’s own Office of Sustainability, along with three student volunteers. 

There, students with valid IDs will be able to browse over 5,000 up-for-grabs goods — totaling a whopping 20,000 pounds — all salvaged from NYU residence halls at the end of last school year.

Awaiting shoppers is an “endless supply” of hangers, bed risers, microwaves, three pirate costumes and a rather large inventory of crutches in a “medical” area, according to junior Kate Koblegarde, 20, who was instrumental in the planning of the shop.

They are all stocked in a shuttered grocery store on Second Avenue that was so “grimy and dusty,” she told The Post, it took students a ton of time to clean the interior before any of the items could be brought in.

There’s also been lots of support from people in the community, said Koblegarde. 

“One kind French man named Sam donated some very nice clothing and high-quality furniture from his vintage store nearby that was closing,” added Koblegard, a member of NYU’s student government and sustainability committee.

The junior majoring in environmental economics has also been known to spot discarded items on the street that she thinks her fellow students might find useful.

“I’ve found the occasional vacuum and office chair,” she said. “I’ve been rolling items like this to the store on the way to work all summer.”

With the average college student producing 640 pounds of trash annually, with most of that accumulating by the time students move out of student housing, according to the nonprofit Planet Aid, Hughes said one of her goals is to do what she can to reduce the refuse.

“If you multiply that by the 10,000 students at our school, that’s 6.4 million pounds of trash — and that doesn’t even cover the four years we’re in college,” she said. “Growing up in Vermont, reusing, composting and recycling is the norm, but it’s not the same here. I wanted to do something to see that change in my fellow students.”

And, while most will find items that were deliberately discarded, there is one NYU student who hopes to reclaim something he accidentally donated.

“We recently posted a video of a T-shirt with a pun about a cat on it,” Koblegarde said. “Someone online reposted the video, saying he had accidentally donated it and is hoping to find it. I truly hope he does.”