What is Trash to Treasure?

Trash to Treasure is an initiative started in 2005 to give students greater access to donation drop-offs, dorm essentials, and other items that can be reused. As a part of the Campus Environmental Center, we operate donation drives throughout the year by bringing donation bins to each of the residence halls, collecting what is donated, and sorting what we receive into different categories of reuse. 

The items that are in the best condition are resold to UT faculty, staff, and students through our pop-up thrifts sales hosted occasionally throughout each semester. Everything is sold for $1 as a way to make reuse even more accessible to the UT community. 

Other items do not meet the standards for what is resold and can be recycled in our new Making Amends initiative or find a future home through other recycling methods, charities, or non-profits. 

The proceeds of our sales go back to support the Campus Environmental Center and the environmental programs that it puts on.

Three-Fold Benefits

• We divert thousands of pounds from the waste stream annually
• We supply the campus community with inexpensive goods for reuse, such as clothing, electronics, home goods, and office supplies
• We raise funds to support environmental programs at UT Austin

Upcoming Events

November is all done for this year, but we have a donation drive and Making Amends workshop scheduled for December so stay tuned!

Making Amends

Making Amends is an upcycling initiative under the Trash to Treasure project that creates a collaborative approach to upcycling in the UT community. Making Amends hosts in person workshops and provides students the materials and knowledge to learn how to upcycle pre-loved clothing.

Learn More Here

More on Sustainability

The Trash to Treasure content team publishes blog posts for the CEC Green Voices Blog. You can read those posts and more on sustainability HERE.