Sustainability is part of the fabric of the University of Washington. One of the ten goals in the UW Sustainability Action Plan is to produce ten percent less solid waste by 2025. This means reducing the amount of waste the UW sends to the landfill by ten percent.
Rethinking and reusing items are some of the most impactful ways to move towards our goal. Programs across the UW focus on rethinking and promoting reuse. Below are programs offered at the UW Seattle campus.
- ASUW Bean Basket
- ASUW Bike Shop
- Campus Leaves & Coffee Grounds Compost
- Free Materials Library – UW School of Art + Art History + Design
- Gear Garage Rental Center
- HUB Lost & Found Sale
- Husky Career Closet
- Little Free Seed Library
- Makerspaces
- Odegaard Game Collection
- OZZI Reusable Container Program
- Salvage Wood Program
- UW Food Pantry
- UW Recreation Equipment Buyback & Donations
- UW Farm’s Community Supported Agriculture Program
- UW Surplus
- Vermicomposting Facility - UW Farm
Do you know of another program on campus? Email us at recycle@uw.edu and let us know!
ASUW Bean Basket
Open to UW students, faculty & staff
The Bean Basket is a student-run bulk-buying store located on the ground floor of Odegaard Undergraduate Library.
The UW community can purchase non-perishable bulk foods at a low cost at their store. Available products include bulk food staples like seasonings, beans, grains, teas, dried fruits, and nuts. Bring your own container to reduce your waste!
ASUW Bike Shop
Open to UW students, faculty & staff
The ASUW Bike Shop offers a safe space for UW students, faculty, and staff to work on their bikes using the space, tools, and equipment for free.
The bike shop collects old bike parts in their "Bone Yard." These parts are traded or sold for low prices. Additionally, the bike shop sells refurbished bikes and provides maintenance services.
Campus Leaves & Coffee Grounds Compost
Departmental reuse program only
UW Grounds collects fallen leaves and adds them to a campus compost pile. These leaves are blended with coffee grounds collected from UW Medical Center cafes by UW Recycling. The leaf/coffee compost is used by UW Grounds crews and the UW Farm for their vermicomposting facility. The compost provides a great defense against weeds and helps maintain soil moisture content.
Free Materials Library - UW School of Art + Art History + Design
Open to UW Art, Art History & Design students
The UW School of Art + Art History + Design sponsors a free materials library to support students and promote access to their majors. Located in the Art Building and staffed by interns, the space is open a few days a week. The Free Materials Library contains new and gently used art supplies, books, and materials that students may choose for free. Students are welcome to take a few items during each visit.
Anyone can donate art supplies or art history textbooks! To donate, bring items to the Art Building room 104 during the hours found on the Free Materials Library website. If you have large donations, please call (206) 543-0646 to schedule when you can drop off the donations. Large donations must be scheduled ahead of time and then delivered to the Art Building.
Gear Garage Rental Center
Open to UW students, faculty & staff
Students, staff, and community members with an active Rec Membership through UW Recreation can rent outdoor gear from UWild’s Gear Garage. Individuals may rent equipment for various activities, including skiing, backpacking, biking, camping, and rock climbing. UW students receive a reduced price!
HUB Lost & Found Sale
Open to the UW community and public
The Husky Union Building (HUB) is the central lost and found location on campus. The HUB posts found items on a Crowdfind page where students look and submit claims for items belonging to them. Once these items have expired from the Crowdfind inventory, the HUB will add them to their monthly lost and found sale. On the first Wednesday of each month, items are placed on sale at the Information Desk for a reduced price.
Husky Career Closet
Open to UW students
The UW Career & Internship Center created its Husky Career Closet to give undergraduate and graduate students a low-cost way to get interview and workplace attire. The Husky Career Closet contains gently-used workplace attire. Students can come in during their operating hours and choose one complete outfit for free!
Anyone can donate high-quality items in good condition to the Career Closet. Check their website for more information.
Little Free Seed Library
Open to the UW community and public
In April of 2022, the UW Farm opened a “Little Free Seed Library”. This library is open to all. It’s a space where the community can leave their seeds to share with others and take some to use.
Makerspaces
Available to UW students, faculty & staff. Faculty and staff can purchase a membership or pay a user fee.
The UW has three total makerspaces, two of which are located within residence hall community centers. The makerspaces have a variety of equipment including 3D printers, sewing machines, woodworking equipment and more!
These spaces offer workshops and classes throughout the academic year including sewing and embroidery. If you have an idea for repairing or reusing materials, talk to one of their staff members to see what’s possible.
Some of the community centers also have equipment and game rentals, but it may be limited to Housing & Food Services residents. For more information, contact the individual makerspace: Area 01, The 8 and The MILL.
Odegaard Game Collection
Available to active UW Library Card holders
UW Libraries has a Game Collection at Odegaard Undergraduate Library. The collection contains a variety of board, card and tabletop role-playing games. Games can be checked out for 14 days.
The collection is located on Odegaard 1st floor, just inside and to the left of the main entry doors. You can also browse the entire Game Collection and place holds on specific games in UW Libraries Search.
OZZI Reusable Container Program
Open to UW students
Instead of using disposable take-out containers, students across the UW can participate in Housing and Food Services’ OZZI reusable container program. Housing & Food Services provides one token to each student living in residence halls at the start of the school year. Students can exchange these tokens for an OZZI reusable container at Local Point or Center Table. They give their tokens to a cashier at the dining hall and their meal will be served in a bright purple reusable container.
After using, students must rinse and return their OZZI container to a machine at Local Point or Center Table. Participants will then receive a new token for their next use.
Salvage Wood Program
UW students, faculty & staff can request and purchase pieces
UW Facilities Grounds Management manages over 10,000 trees on the Seattle campus. Sometimes these trees need to be removed. The Salvage Wood Program is an effort to extend the life cycle of these beautiful trees and turn them into other useable items.
Faculty, staff, and students can request various pieces with a valid Worktag. Options include nameplates, engraved plaques, cutting boards, benches, conference tables, and other custom furniture pieces.
UW Food Pantry
Open to UW students, faculty & staff
The UW Food Pantry is open to all UW students, staff, and faculty with a Husky ID card. The pantry is a source of food for anyone in the UW community experiencing food insecurity.
The pantry receives food donations from several sources. UW Housing & Food Services and UW Medical Center Montlake supply unsold and ready-to-eat food from cafes across their campuses. The UW Farm delivers fresh, locally grown produce as their harvest allows. Many campus organizations also organize food drives to donate excess food to the pantry – find out how to donate here.
UW Recreation Equipment Buyback & Donations
Departmental reuse program only
UW Recreation promotes the reuse of unwanted items through buyback and donation programs. Gym equipment is typically sold back to the vendor through a buyback program, allowing the Intramurals Activity Building (IMA) to receive a discount for new equipment. UW Surplus will receive any ineligible items.
Any small sports equipment (such as balls and rackets) go to Seattle Parks and Rec and Seattle Public Schools. Other left-behind items, such as shoes or clothing are donated to Goodwill.
UW Farm’s Community Supported Agriculture Program
UW community and public can purchase membership
The UW Farm runs a Community Support Agriculture (CSA) program where students and community members can subscribe to Summer, Peak, or Full Season shares. During the CSA, participants pick up one weekly box of fresh local produce harvested from the Farm. There is also a discount for UW students!
UW Surplus
Open to UW community and public
All unwanted items purchased with UW funds must go to Surplus. The UW Surplus Store is in the Plant Services Building, across from University Village. Surplus aims to reuse, repurpose, or recycle as many items as possible.
UW Surplus sells a variety of products they receive at a reduced price. Items include office supplies, furniture, décor, UW Athletics gear, vehicles, and more!
UW Departments, nonprofit organizations, and government agencies can shop at the store on behalf of their organization at times throughout the week. The Surplus store is open to the public on Tuesdays from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. They also have an online storefront where they post items customers can purchase and pick up.
Surplus offers live, timed auctions through GovDeals.com for large or unique items. Auctioned items may include vehicles, hard drives, air compressors, water vessels, DNA sequencers, 3D printers, and more. UW Recycling always recommends checking Surplus before buying new!
Vermicomposting Facility – UW Farm
Departmental reuse program only
Funded by a Campus Sustainability Fund grant, the UW Farm's vermicomposting facility plays an integral role in creating a sustainable food system. The facility is home to red wiggler worms that feast on vegetable waste from the UW Farm.
The worms eat and process the food waste, breaking it down into "castings." The castings are harvested and blended with leaves and coffee grounds from the campus compost pile. This nutrient-rich soil amendment is used by UW Farm when planting and growing perennial crops such as fruit trees, flowers, and more! To learn more about vermiculture, visit UW Farm’s production and practices webpage.
UW Recycling provides daily waste and recycling collection for the UW Seattle campus. However, our role extends well beyond picking up trash. Our staff serve as contract administrators, education and outreach experts, waste diversion innovators and sustainability enthusiasts for the UW Seattle campus.
Have we missed an active zero waste or reuse program at the UW Seattle campus? Please email us at recycle@uw.edu and we’d love to expand this list.
We encourage people to explore the huge number of buy nothing groups and repair / reuse programs across the city of Seattle and Washington state. Please reach out if you’d like us to share community resources in your area that we’re aware of!