On Tuesday, Sept. 20, Students for Environmental Sustainability took a stand on sustainability by hosting the Sustainability Salvage, which demonstrated the concept of re-use and discouraging wasteful habits.
This was the third year for the Sustainability Salvage, and it was a huge success. Wilkes students left with smiles on their faces and newly acquired belongings.
Junior environmental engineering major Lizzie Helsel and junior environmental engineering major Katie Cirone, club presidents described the event as a “free yard sale.”  At the end of each spring semester, anything that anyone on campus had and wanted to give away was collected and stored in Slocum Hall to be retrieved in the fall for the salvage.
Tables were set up in the SUB first floor lounge with items such as tupperware, laundry detergent, lamps and tables: a variety of unwanted but useful items collected from the previous school year that would have otherwise been discarded, destroyed and wasted. Students were permitted to stop by and browse the objects on the tables, and take whatever they needed or wanted without having to pay.
“We want to promote re-use over just throwing stuff away,” Cirone said.
Helsel and Cirone said many students, especially seniors, prefer quick disposal of unwanted possessions over transferring them back home. The primary goal of the event was to try and direct these items not into the trash, but to someone who could use them.The presidents said the event has improved since it was started three years ago, and that a lot more items were put out this year.
Sophomore psychology major Mariah DiGloria, who grabbed a binder and a few pantry foods at the salvage, appreciated the fact that so many students could benefit from the event. DiGloria also said that the salvage was a great way to get rid of belonging if you didn’t know what to do with it.
“Some people may not realize that other people need what you have,” DiGloria said.
DiGloria said that the people who gave away their items in the spring may not realize that their useless belongings are now of benefit to someone else.
The number of students poking through the items resulted in most everything being taken quickly. The sustainability free-for-all, which was expected to extend into club hours, had ended earlier than expected.
SES has donated the items that were not taken at the event to the Salvation Army.