The Penn State Trash to Treasure Sale: Who Donates and Why? Laura Dininni Department of Agricultural and Extension Education Penn State University

If you’re not part of the solution…  Last year during Move Out Penn State Students donated 80 tons of usable goods to the Trash to Treasure Stadium Sale  Another 110 tons went to a landfill.

Objectives of this study Understand why students do or do not donate goods Basis to evaluate current trash to treasure promotional campaigns

Study Design  Survey  Population: University Park students living on campus  Convenience sample  Data Collection Dorms Dining Halls

The Data Set  44 completed surveys  21 females, 23 males  23 Freshmen  14 Sophomore  5 Junior  2 Senior

Results

Awareness and Donations  Less than half ( 20 of 44) were aware of the trash to treasure sale  Of those that were aware of the sale, over half (13) made donations to the sale  All of those who donated last year will do so again this year

Awareness and Donations  The primary reason that people did not donate to the sale was that they didn’t know about the sale (14 of 20)  Of those that were aware of the sale, most (14 of 20) found out about it through fliers in the dorms.  Others (4 of 20) heard about it through a class

Concern about Waste  Most individuals are either ‘rather concerned’ (22 of 44) or ‘very concerned’ (12 of 44) about the amount of waste generated at Move Out every year  Six were ‘concerned’, 2 were ‘sort of concerned’ and 2 were ‘not at all concerned’

Conclusions  Most students are simply unaware  Most of those that are aware donate Recognize benefit to self and other  Past donors will donate again Easy

Conclusions  Given that most are quite concerned about waste generation and the primary reason for not donating was lack of awareness…  Promotional campaign could be more successful  Recommendations

Recommendations  An opportunity  Right group to address  Right way to address  We care

Win-Win-Win Situation  Environment Less waste for landfill  Individual Patrons get nice stuff cheap Students “Give it up for good”  Community Money spent goes to Centre County United Way then back into the community

Thank you! Questions?