Graduating and Don't Need That Fridge? Just Leave It Behind

Leaving a Big Mess on Campus

Each and every year after students take their last final, have one last party with their friends to celebrate taking that last final and finally get around to cleaning out their room on campus, college kids everywhere always seem to leave behind a bunch of their stuff they no longer want.

At Pomona college in California, after students moved out, maintenance crews found about 50 unwanted mini-refrigerators, 40 computer printers, scores of microwave ovens and window fans, mounds of mattresses and couches, piles of pillows and clothes, a store's worth of detergent, shampoo, books and ramen, not to mention some bicycles, stuffed animals, crutches and even some exotic underwear.

"Not until you are here sorting through it all do you realize the actual magnitude of what was previously being trashed. And what could be put to good use for families of need," said a Pomona student who along with her classmates collected some of the salvageable items left behind to donate to charity.

So why do students leave so much of their shit behind? Some say its mostly graduates who will no longer need a tiny dorm room fridge to keep their beer icy cold. Others say it may be because today's college students are simply just living in much more of a throwaway culture than in the past.

Whatever the reason, most of the stuff left behind gets put to some good use eventually by another student. One student's shit may also be another student's shit - but he may put that shit to good use. Word.