City helps UC students and residents properly dispose unwanted items

UC Santa Cruz officials told KION in the past students would leave behind unwanted furniture once school was out for the summer.

They would drag items out to the street and stick a free sign on them. Oftentimes items would just linger in neighborhoods, eventually ending up in the river or landfill.

To help prevent that from happening, UCSC partnered with the City of Santa Cruz to pick up appliances and bulky items from off campus students and city residents.

“It’s cool to have a service that like,” said UC Santa Cruz student Sean Elliott. “You just put it on your street and someone will take care of it appropriately than just chucking it out or putting it somewhere random.”

Everything from refrigerators to couches and even toilets got picked up.

“We don’t want those to be left out on the street where they’re either an eyesore or a danger to people,” said Mary Simmons, City of Santa Cruz waste reduction manager.

Crews picked up material from 800 different homes. Once the items were collected, they were sorted to be recycled or go into the landfill.

“We want to make sure everything, hazardous things that could be dangerous, they’re handled properly,” said Simmons. “For instance the Freon in a refrigerator, that it gets taken out before that scrap metal.”

People could also drop off mattresses for free.

“That trailer behind us now filled with mattresses would otherwise have been landfilled will now be recycled,” said Rodney Clara with the Mattress Recycling Council. “The wood will be used as mulch, the steel can be used in steel and the fabric and the padding is actually used as carpet padding.”

The next appliance and bulky pick up day will happen this fall.