‘Tis the season for … dumpster diving? How students take advantage of the items left behind during UCSC’s move-out week

Upperclassmen Justin and Bella plowed through a donation bin of collegiate miscellany in the late afternoon sun at Porter Quad at UC Santa Cruz, as the school year wound to a close Friday. Arm-deep in full water bottles, clothes hangers and toilet paper rolls, Justin grabbed something from the bottom of the pile. His prize: a green Five Star spiral notebook. Even though it is a small find, retailing for under $10, it felt like a cherished possession. 

“These are expensive notebooks,” Justin said. “So I’m taking it with me.”

Each year when graduation season ends, many departing students throw away or abandon expensive household items they are unable or unwilling to take home. 

Students rummage through the strategically placed green bins that the university distributes to tamp down on the highly discouraged and more dangerous practice of dumpster diving and whose remaining contents end up donated to Goodwill.

As a result, both current UCSC students and recent graduates often return to campus to rummage for items discarded by departing students that would have cost upward of hundreds of dollars if purchased new. 

In years past, Justin, who declined to give his last name, says he has found an incredible amount of deluxe gear: vintage Apple computers, graphics cards and a swivel chair he dragged into a common room, which “is probably still there.” The memories of those delectable finds keep him and Bella, who also did not provide her last name, coming back for more.

“I feel like there are just a lot of things that are tossed or things people say, ‘I just don’t want to lug it home,’ but it’s still valuable,” Bella said. This year, she recovered whole rolls of toilet paper.

The most strategic dumpster divers take to the bins in the dead of night, echoing concerns of campus security catching them and slowing down their treasure-hunting adventures. 

Piper Yohman, a first-year neuroscience major living at Cowell College, said that the Cowell resident advisors encouraged students at their end-of-year meeting to refrain from taking items from the bins. She recalled them saying that once someone puts an item in the bin, it’s Goodwill property, but also that it’s not strictly enforced.

“They’re like, ‘But no one’s checking if anyone takes one,’” she said. “I mean, it’s free resources at the end of the day.”

University officials did not return emails seeking comment on the practice. But according to Slugbot, the official UCSC chatbot, dumpster diving is not allowed during move-out week. 

The official rules, however, did not seem to deter students on a Thursday afternoon, with some seen nonchalantly perusing the discarded dorm-room wares on hand. 

For some students, such as second-year art & game design major Jonah Amador, dumpster diving is a spontaneous joy. He and his friends decided to search in the bins across campus last year on a whim, because they were moving from a dorm room to an on-campus apartment with more space. He was surprised at the things students left behind.

“The craziest thing I saw somebody leave was their entire gaming chair, like rolling wheels and everything. It looked brand-new, too, and it was just left next to a dumpster,” he said. 

Kenedi Bikovsky said she had left behind a Batman costume she had worn to class for extra credit. Summer called for a wardrobe change. Now the costume lies in the donation bins waiting for its next owner – or Goodwill – to pick it up. 

More common items students leave behind are plastic containers, clothes and Brita water filters. Amador also said he, along with many others, left their foam mattress toppers because they take up a lot of space. 

According to students, the donation spots that tend to be packed with more expensive items are near dorms for first-year and international students, because they either overbuy in the excitement of entering college or physically cannot take their items with them on flights back home.

Angelina Santana, a second-year biochemistry and molecular biology major living off campus, said that due to the tough housing market in the city, she had not secured an apartment before her freshman housing lease came to an end. This meant she had to leave behind most of her belongings and fly home to San Diego for the summer.

“I only had one suitcase to take on the plane, and I had to get rid of a lot of my clothes because I got a lot of clothes when I moved to Santa Cruz, and keeping them all would have exceeded the weight limit,” Santana said.

This year, she had off-campus housing secured for the summer, so she decided to dig through the bins with her friend Mia during finals week. As Santana picked up a pair of jeans from the green box in Porter Quad, she said it was strange finding and taking items from the bin when last year she was the one leaving things inside it.

Although clothes are some of the most donated items throughout campus, students are also quick to leave behind nonperishable foods they bought in bulk, such as ramen packets and uncooked pasta. This begs the question, then, of what happens to students’ food at the end of the year that is either opened or needs refrigeration. 

Julie Naddour, a first-year philosophy major who just moved out of her Kresge College dorm, said that she and her roommate tried their best to keep as much stuff as possible, to mitigate waste. However, they still had to get rid of quite a bit of perishable food during move-out.

“I feel like everything that’s in here is food,” she said, pointing to a full garbage bag hanging off her desk chair. “It feels so horrible … but there’s not much else to do with it.”

According to Slugbot, students cannot take any food from the bins.

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