At the end of the academic year, students vacate their halls of residence - some things are taken with them, but there are inevitably some things that are no longer wanted, or simply do not fit in the car for the journey home. This means quality unwanted items being lost to landfill... Or does it?

Exodus: From the Beginning

In December 2009, Lancashire CRN organised the Reuse with Universities mini-conference. This was a half day event which brought together the county's universities with Lancashire CRN members and expert guest speakers, all with a view to seeing how reuse projects might work here in Lancashire. Inspired by the difference these reuse projects have made across the country, Lancaster University started putting plans in place for a campus-wide pilot reuse scheme in the summer of 2010.

Exodus Reuse Project was born! It aimed to divert unwanted items donated by students (including bedding, clothes and shoes, crockery and kitchenware, books, stationary and working electrical goods) to local good causes. It was piloted in 2010 and had a successful first year, diverting 3.8 tonnes of donations. The donated books also raised over £900 for Lancaster charity Thumb Print.

Exodus: Award Winning Second Year

This year, off-campus student accomodation within Lancaster City Centre was included, and the project was extended to include Graduate College, whose students traditionally leave at the end of the summer holidays prior to Freshers' Week. This time, the project built on the previous year's ideas and employed 10 student staff members to help publicise and deliver the project.

Monitoring took place throughout the delivery period and showed that the project had diverted a massive 25.6 tonnes of donations from landfill to local good causes. The project received the runner up prize for Best New Project at Lancashire CRN's Red Rose Resource Awards in September 2011.

Then, in November 2011, the Exodus Reuse Project was announced as the winner of the Student Initiatives and Campaigns category at the Green Gown Awards. The Green Gown Awards recognize exceptional environmental and sustainability initiatives being undertaken by universities, colleges and the learning and skills sector across the UK, and this category recognises initiatives which have been developed and/or substantially influenced by students.

Lancashire CRN Coordinator Dawn Welham, a former Lancaster University student said "I organised the mini-conference to try see whether we could facilitate some end of term reuse activity in Lancashire - it made so much sense to pair up universities with community groups to make sure unwanted household items were given to those in need rather than being thrown away. It just had to be simple for students to donate!"

"It is fantastic to see how quickly this project has grown and it is a credit to Green Lancaster Coordinator Darren Axe and the Exodus Team that so much was collected for good causes this year. There is a huge amount of work needed behind the scenes to make a project like this work so well, and so quickly! It is wonderful to see an organiation the size of Lancaster University supporting an initiative like this, and therefore directly supporting local community groups and the people in need who they support. Long may it continue!"