At a glance
The Husky Goods Free Store is a new, donation-powered on-campus reuse store designed to reduce waste… Read full summary
- Funding received
- 2025-2026
- Large
- Awarded
- $31,297
- Funding partners
-
- Services and Activities Fee (SAF)
The Husky Goods Free Store is a new, donation-powered on-campus reuse store designed to reduce waste, make essential goods more accessible, and foster a culture of resource sharing at the University of Washington. Led by UW Recycling, the store collects and redistributes usable clothing, bedding, kitchenware, bags, décor, and other household items to UW students, staff, and faculty, providing a convenient alternative to purchasing new goods. The physical storefront (in the HUB) creates a consistent and accessible system for reuse while reducing the waste and logistical demands associated with temporary pop-up events. Donations will be collected through permanent residence hall collection bins, UW Recycling’s student move-out programs, and direct store donations, with UW Recycling managing collection and transportation. Student involvement is central to the project, including a student manager, interns, volunteers, and partnerships with campus sustainability organizations and programs supporting international students. CSF funds support the store's donation collection & transportation, material processing, storage, safety supplies, rental costs, and the pay for a student work study position.
This funding will establish the Husky Goods Free Store, a free, convenient and donation-powered on-campus thrift store for its inaugural year of operation. UW Recycling will oversee the project, drawing on their extensive experience coordinating student move‑out, donation drives, outreach and Free Store pop-up events to ensure success. This project will reduce wasteful consumption, ease financial pressures on students and foster a culture of reuse and community care. By collecting and redistributing goods through the Husky Goods Free Store, UW can prevent waste disposal of useful items and create a system of circularity on campus.
A physical storefront creates reliable access, reduces extensive labor and planning required by pop-up events and creates a consistent message to the campus community. The store will accept and offer personal donations such as clothing, bags, bedding, décor, kitchenware and other household goods. Any UW student, staff or faculty member will be able to shop. The store will encourage students to choose used items over new purchases to reduce the number of usable items sent to the landfill.
After searching for over a year, UW Recycling has found two feasible Husky Goods Free Store locations. We are asking the CSF Committee to review both options and determine which arrangement is best suited for this project. One location is in the HUB’s sub-basement and one is on the second floor of the South Campus Center Building. Both locations have unique benefits, drawbacks and needs. We have prepared a budget for each location (see worksheets) as well as a detailed comparison for the Committee to review.
To collect donations, UW Recycling will 1) install large permanent donation containers inside two residence halls, 2) divert certain materials from SCRAM, UW Recycling’s temporary student move-out donation program, and 3) accept donations directly at the store. This will provide ongoing waste‑reduction benefits for materials that often go to waste. The UW Recycling operations team will manage donation collection and transportation.
Student involvement is integral to this effort. UW Recycling will create one student employee position to manage the Free Store and coordinate student volunteers. This position will be partially funded by this CSF grant and partially funded by Work Study. The UW Recycling team will support this student manager with training, day‑to‑day store functions and volunteer outreach.
We have requested up to three student interns to work on the Free Store in Summer Quarter 2026 through the Program on the Environment capstone. UW Recycling is also collaborating with the Huskies for Equitable Sustainability (HuES) Zero Waste Working Group and the RCSA SEED Zero Waste Task Force. These student groups helped coordinate donation drives and pop‑up Free Store events in 2025 and 2026. UW Recycling plans to partner with the International Student Success Program (ISSP) in the School of Public Health as opportunities occur. This student group collects and distributes household goods and furniture for eligible international UW graduate students. HuES, SEED and ISSP share a strong interest in establishing a long‑term solution for accessible resource sharing on campus.
Liz Gignilliat
Project lead
- lizg9@uw.edu
- Affiliation
- Staff
- Affiliated groups
- UW Recycling, Building Services Department
Hannah Whobrey
Team member
- hwhobrey@uw.edu
- Affiliation
- Staff
- Affiliated groups
- UW Alumni, UW 2023 Husky Sustainability Award winner, UW Recycling, Building Services Department
Husky Goods Free Store + Donation Collection Letter of Intent
UW Recycling intends to apply for the Campus Sustainability Fund Large Grant to invest in permanent donation collection bins as well as costs associated with operating a semi-permanent Free Store on campus. This will cement a circular collection and distribution economy for student goods on campus, contributing to waste reduction, economic relief for students, and a culture of resource sharing. This is an equitable solution to the issue of overconsumption and waste creation. The Husky Goods Free Store will be open to all students, to reduce financial barriers to sustainable actions, and normalize accessing free services without requiring students to declare need. The donation bins and Husky Goods Free Store will be convenient and physically accessible to all students. UW Recycling has tentatively secured a long-term temporary (multi-year) space and requires funding to support the operations, rent, staffing of the Free Store.
- Problem/Issue
- Based on a survey conducted in a Winter 2025 Program on the Environment capstone project sponsored by UW Recycling, 92% of students want to donate items they no longer use. However, the Seattle campus is too far from the nearest donation sites for students to access them by walking or transit. While there are consignment stores near campus, they are selective in what they accept and only sell clothing. This leaves students with no other choice but to discard perfectly usable items. In addition to the donation desert, students are facing rising costs of living. International students, who make up 15% of the total campus population, face compounding challenges with limited luggage capacity, international shipping being prohibitively expensive, and for some, reduced value of their currency when they arrive on campus. To solve these issues, UW Recycling is working to establish a permanent free store available for all students to take from and donate to.
- Sustainable Impact
- Establishing permanent donation collection at buildings in North and West Campus will positively impact waste reduction throughout the year. In tandem with the Husky Goods Free Store, waste will be prevented by providing the collected donations back to students thereby reducing the volume of new materials entering the campus waste stream. This will prevent water and energy usage associated with the production of new items that students typically buy, and students will be drawn to get their items used instead of new because all items at the store will be available for free.
- Leadership and Student Involvement
- Student groups are already involved in this project and are heavily invested in finding a permanent solution to the donation desert and increased economic stress. UW Recycling is actively collaborating with Huskies for Equitable Sustainability’s Zero Waste Working Group and the RCSA SEED Zero Waste Task Force to plan donation drives and pop-up free store events to set the precedent for a permanent free store and donation collection on campus. These groups are dedicated to continuing to plan these temporary events but would like to find a permanent solution to students’ needs.
- Education, Outreach, and Behavior Change
- This project will impact behavior change on campus by modelling a circular resource sharing model and growing capacity for students to support one another. Through paid positions, volunteer opportunities, and store visitors, the Husky Goods Free Store will be an experiential learning experience providing students with the opportunity to learn retail management, operations, and business leadership skills.
- Feasibility and Accountability
- UW Recycling’s full-time staff will manage this project. The UW Recycling Operations team will monitor and haul the donations that accumulate in the collection vessels, while the program coordinators will manage the operations of the free store along with the help of student employees and volunteers. Because UW Recycling already manages student move-out and has planned numerous free store events and donation drives, we are well-versed in what it takes to move and organize material. We will collect, sort, redistribute or properly discard all donated materials. We will track the weight of all donations, the number of visitors/patrons, and the popularity of certain items. This will help us understand the impact of waste diversion, as well as what items are needed by the student population.
- Budget
- Requesting from CSF:
- $7,184 donation drop-off containers (2)
- $2,580 internal donation bin carts (4)
- $1,500 supplies to manage and display materials
- $3,456 labor for servicing drop-off containers and hauling materials weekly for 1 year
- $15,366 Work Study paid student position for staffing store for 1 year (15 hours/week)
- $8,869 warehouse storage space for materials 1 year
- $24,624 rent for storefront in HUB
- $23,184 rent for the staging and donation collection room in HUB
- Requesting from CSF:
Approximate total (for 1 year): $86,762
- Paid for by UW Recycling
- Staff to manage store and donation sorting
- Sorting operations space
Jason Lindahl
facility approval role
- jlindahl@uw.edu
- Affiliation and department
- Director for Health Sciences Streategic Planning & Development
- Stakeholder approval form
Carrie Moore
facility approval role
- cmmoore1@uw.edu
- Affiliation and department
- Executive Director, Husky Union Building
- Stakeholder approval form
Request amount and budget
- $7,184 donation drop-off containers (2)
- $2,580 internal donation bin carts (4)
- $1,500 supplies to manage and display materials
- $3,456 labor for servicing drop-off containers and hauling materials weekly for 1 year
- $15,366 Work Study paid student position for staffing store for 1 year (15 hours/week)
- $8,869 warehouse storage space for materials 1 year
- $24,624 rent for storefront in HUB
- $23,184 rent for the staging and donation collection room in HUB
How the project will react to funding reductions
- 10% Cut: With $31,297 in funding approved, we would reduce equipment purchases significantly, reducing the quantity of shelves, tables and carts (to remove $3,400). Impact would be that we would not be able to fit as much stuff into the store and unpaid student volunteer labor for sorting and store restocking may increase.
- 20% Cut: With $27,819 in funding approved, we would eliminate the HUB location option, reduce equipment purchases by $3,800 and possibly reduce the student employee hours. Impact would be a less convenient location and less engagement, as well as increased student volunteer labor for sorting and store set up. Store hours and donation hours may be more limited and reliance on unpaid student labor would increase.
- 50% Cut: With $17,387 in funding approved, we would eliminate the HUB location option, reduce equipment purchases by $3,800, remove overflow/backstock storage at Sand Point and reduce the student employee to 14 hours per week (700 hours annually). Store hours and donation hours would likely be reduced and reliance on unpaid student labor would increase. Without Sand Point, it will be difficult to keep the store stocked consistently. Certain times of the year with low donation activity would cause low inventory and empty shelves. The store would also be beyond capacity at other times and would have to limit accepted materials, reduce collection opportunities and donate excess donations to external non-profits. Items that are difficult to sort, take up too much space, are less popular or are not needed by external non-profits may have to be rejected or discarded as garbage. This includes linens, pillows, bathroom caddies and clothing hangers.
Plans for financial longevity
UW Recycling will provide financial oversight and strategy management for the Free Store project, including the Free Store student manager position. The initial grant will fund rent and equipment to get the store operationally equipped for the first year. Items that only need to be purchased once (shelving infrastructure, donation collection bins, clothing racks) will last for several years and will be supplemented by incoming donations that can be used as displays for other items (like bookshelves or plastic totes).
Depending on the CSF Committee’s decision on the location, the grant may be applied to rental costs in the HUB. If the location in the HUB is chosen, UW Recycling and supporting student groups will likely need support from a CSF Mini-Grant to cover rental costs the following year. The UW Recycling team and Free Store Manager will assess and evaluate the store’s location after its first year. As the Free Store proves to be a valuable campus resource, we hope that some future costs (equipment and rent) may be supported by the Services & Activities Fee. To ensure long-term success of the store, UW Recycling will continue to look for low-cost and accessible locations and could move locations if necessary.
The Husky Goods Free Store student manager position will help establish long-term management and maintenance. Since this CSF Large Grant would only fund one year, UW Recycling will apply to get the position funded by the UW Facilities department internship fund in subsequent years for the position to continue.
UW Recycling’s oversight will set the groundwork for the Husky Goods Free Store to be a cornerstone of the UW. Our staff has expertise in navigating the processes of the UW and documenting program success. In conjunction with student involvement, our team will continuously improve the store until it becomes engrained within the UW community. Eventually, our team envisions the Free Store will be led by students, but we will ensure the store is developed and steadfast before transitioning away.
July 2026- Husky Goods Free Store opens at the HUB
August 2026- Satellite donation collection bins set up on North and West campus
Plans for long-term project management
Our unit, UW Recycling, will manage operations and serve as the overarching department that oversees this project. Our permanent staff will assist the student positions associated with the project (student employee Work Study position, volunteers, student organizations and capstone interns) with administrative and operational tasks. UW Recycling’s operations team will monitor and haul donations that accumulate in residence hall collection bins, which will become an expected part of their weekly tasks.
UW Recycling’s continued collaboration with on-campus student groups (SEED, HuES, ISSP) will maintain project longevity even as individual students come and go. SEED will manage a complimentary donation collection project in residential laundry rooms, which will bring further awareness to the Husky Goods Free Store, cementing it as a staple of available campus resources.
Although our program coordinators will take on some responsibilities related to the Free Store, funding will allow us to hire a student employee through the Work Study program to run the store. This position will develop the store with a student-lens and maintain an operational structure for future years. The student employee will be required to create and maintain thorough documentation to ease the transition to future student employees and volunteers. UW Recycling will supervise this student position and there will be regular check-ins with the team on any challenges. This relationship will provide support to the student manager and ensure continuity from year to year as student involvement changes overtime.
Problem statement
Each year, the University becomes inundated with leftover items from students moving out. UW Recycling can divert some material through their student moveout donation program, but not all donated items are accepted by non-profits. In June 2025, residential facilities on campus still sent over 80 tons of material to the landfill during the week of move-out. A year‑round, on-campus free store would directly help address this challenge and support sustainability at the UW.
Student interest
According to a Winter 2025 Program on the Environment capstone project survey, 92% of UW students want to donate items they no longer use. Despite this demand, donation sites are far from the Seattle campus and difficult to access by walking or public transit. Thrift stores nearby campus only accept clothing items. This leaves students to throw away perfectly usable goods. Rising living costs further exacerbate this issue, particularly for international students who comprise 15% of the UW student population. They face unique challenges like limited luggage space, expensive shipping and often unfavorable currency exchange rates.
Waste Reduction:
The Free Store reduces waste in several ways. First, it provides students with a convenient place to donate their unwanted goods, rather than throwing them out. Second, providing items for no cost will encourage students to shop at the Free Store before they go to a store or order it online. This reduces the environmental impacts of transit to/from stores, shipping from retailers and extraction of raw materials to produce brand new items. Third, items that students need are often highly specific to residence halls such as shower caddies and twin XL sheets. During SCRAM, UW Recycling’s moveout donation program, many of the items get damaged in transport or at the donation site. Having year-round collection would improve the integrity of the donated items and reduce waste generated from damaged materials.
Equitable Access and Engagement:
A permanent location creates greater access for the student population. Pop-up events reach a limited audience due to conflicting schedules, location and outreach capabilities. A storefront will have improved hours of operation and become a normalized campus resource. Since all items are free, the program is universally accessible to students of all income levels. Although this means the Husky Goods Free Store can never be self-funded, this structure is more equitable for shoppers than a small fee-based program. Students do not need to prove they qualify for support, which can create added burden, generate stigma and discourage use of the resource.
Consumer Culture Shift:
Providing a place for students to practice thrifting and donating on campus reduces stigma and encourages a shift towards a circular economy model. Although thrifting is trendy, the concept of a free store is still unfamiliar to many. In a world where everything comes at a price, the Free Store model is a radical disruption to the make-take-waste cycle, showing the campus community that sharing resources is an impactful sustainable solution. This emphasizes that sustainability is a community practice, not just an individual choice.
Problem context
In the Sustainability Action Plan (SAP), the UW committed to reducing waste generated on campus each year. A permanent, year-round donation collection and redistribution system will expand the success of individual Husky Goods pop-up events. This program will help the UW transition from isolated waste reduction events to a consistent circular economy model that students can rely on.
Over the past year, UW Recycling successfully piloted the Husky Goods Free Store concept. We organized four events that collectively drew over 2,025 attendees. This shows the student body’s enthusiasm and interest in this program. We redistributed approximately two tons (over 4,400 lbs.) of materials at these events, preventing them from going to the landfill.
At our September 2025 Husky Goods event, almost 1.64 tons (3,617 lbs.) of materials were taken by students within the four hours of the event. This material including bedding, which is a costly item students discard when they change from a twin XL bed (required in on-campus residences) to a standard mattress size. The success of this event proved there is a high need for dependable access to essentials, especially for incoming, international and low-income students.
Our pop-up events during the academic year still held student interest. At our November 2025 Thrift Swap event, nearly every attendee brought items to share, highlighting how UW students are eager to contribute to a culture of reuse. 116 students attended our March 2026 pop-up event, which offered all donated items for free. This number does not even include the numerous folks who donated items to the pop-up event via a residence hall donation collection. This data supports the need for a permanent store, which can popularize circularity throughout the year.
We are building from the wisdom of existing resource distribution programs like the UW Food Pantry, the School of Public Health’s International Student Success Program (ISSP) and the UW Surplus public store. Similar to these programs, we want to intervene before reusable items enter the waste stream. The UW Food Pantry, ASUW Bike Shop and ISSP exemplify how student-led programs can contribute to meaningful behavior change on campus. Their efforts address campus sustainability and help fulfill basic needs of UW community members. We plan to continue to work with and learn from these programs to strengthen the UW’s circular economy infrastructure, which will lead to measurable and meaningful waste reduction.
Measure the impacts
| Impact / goal | Metric(s) of success | UW stakeholders impacted |
|---|---|---|
| Waste Reduction | 7200 pounds of material diverted from landfill (collecting an average of 150lbs of material donations per week for year one) | Undergraduate, Graduate, Academic staff, Admin staff |
| Equitable Access and Engagement | 500 visitors within one year; Open at least one day a week during academic quarters | Undergraduate, Graduate, Academic staff, Admin staff |
| Student leadership opportunity for student with financial need | Hire 1 student employee through Work Study by August 2026 | Undergraduate, Graduate |
Education and outreach goals
Our goal for the Husky Goods Free Store is to be a well-known resource on campus and for students to actively participate in this circular economy model. To get the word out, we’ll take a multifaceted approach and work with campus partners to reach communities on campus that we are not currently connected to.
Established source of information
UW Recycling will create a website for the Husky Goods Free Store so community members will find information in a centralized digital location. This website will detail what the Free Store is, who is eligible, ways the store contributes to community sustainability and the hours of operation. In addition, UW Recycling has reserved the NetID huskygoods@uw.edu and the Instagram handle @uwhuskygoods. These will enable UW Recycling and Free Store student managers to communicate about Husky Goods as centralized source of information.
The Husky Goods Free Store will be added to the Zero Waste & Reuse Programs page on the UW Recycling website, directing students to store and donation sites. It will also be publicized in the Zero Waste Programs Poster, which UW Recycling will have on-hand at the store and distribute to other UW reuse groups. The Zero Waste Programs website page and poster educate the UW community about existing campus programs and resources they can use across the Seattle campus. We will also request that UW Sustainability add it to the Reuse & Share page of the UW Sustainability Map.
Promotion & outreach
In conjunction with the website and social media, UW Recycling will work with multiple campus groups to announce the store’s grand opening. This announcement will be distributed through multiple mediums, including newsletters, digital advertising, social media and print advertising, by the following groups:
- Samuel E. Kelly Ethnic Cultural Center (ECC)
- Husky Union Building (HUB)
- Housing and Food Services (HFS)
- Students Expressing Environmental Dedication (SEED)
- Huskies for Equitable Sustainability (HuES)
- International Student Success Program (ISSP)
- New Student & Transfer Programs
- Program on the Environment (PoE)
- Residential Community Student Association
- Residential Programming Board
- UW CIRCLE
- UW Food Pantry
- Division of Student Life
Through these partnerships, the @uwhuskygoods Instagram account will engage the campus community with “sneak peak” videos. At first, posts will be co-authored with our partners using Instagram’s “collaborative post” feature. This will build our initial following and reach more UW community members. UW Recycling will also try to build media interest through a feature article in The UW Daily and the SmirkUW social media accounts. These features will promote the Husky Goods Free Store’s development and grand opening, which may be cross-promoted by other interested UW groups.
In addition to marketing the store digitally, we will promote the store during our tabling around campus. Last year, UW Recycling tabled over 100 times at various locations around campus and in residence halls, reaching an estimated 2,200 students. Permanent donation collection containers stationed on North and West campus will help advertise and direct students to the Free Store. Some of these events will occur during Dawg Daze, enabling us to reach new students who may not yet subscribe to campus newsletters or follow UW groups on social media.
UW Recycling will continue to leverage our campus partners newsletters to announce special events, promote donation collection and engage with the campus community. Our team will continue to use our Husky Goods Instagram, website and partnerships to share updates throughout the project, such as end-of-year reports on impact metrics.
Education
Through our promotion of the Husky Goods Free Store, we aim to break down the stigma of thrifting and reusing items on campus. Launching in Autumn Quarter 2026 will coincide with the enthusiasm prevalent at the start of the academic year. This time frame can also draw in users who may be reluctant to buy or acquire secondhand goods. When students experience thrifting through our Free Store, they will leave with a more positive perspective of reuse and help disrupt the consumerist mindset. Our student manager position and volunteers will play a large part in establishing a positive culture and fun atmosphere in the store. Students will feel more comfortable shopping in a place that is UW student-led and managed. Similar to the UW Farm and the UW Food Pantry, student involvement in the Free Store can cultivate a sense of community, belonging and environmental consciousness.
As part of the Husky Goods website and messaging, our team will explain why items are free and how reuse contributes to a circular system. UW Recycling can create large signage throughout the store that focuses on the goals of the Free Store and how the program addresses challenges. Volunteers at the store can engage with shoppers or donors on the benefits of reusing these items, reducing waste and providing goods to UW community members that need them. The Husky Goods Free Store team will gather feedback from customers, document operations and report on the impact of this program. The impacts of the Free Store will be publicized to the UW community through the partnerships mentioned during the launch phase. This positive publicity will highlight the importance of this program and how circular systems can address problems at the UW and beyond.
Student involvement
This project has a strong focus on student professional development through paid student work and volunteer opportunities. Since its conception, student involvement has been an integral component of the Husky Goods Free Store project.
In Winter 2025, Program on the Environment capstone student interns conducted a feasibility study about approaches to a free store at the UW. They interviewed stakeholders across campus, learned from other campuses with similar resources and created a plan to build momentum for the project. Using their recommendations, UW Recycling hosted 1 large and 3 small pop-up free store events in the 2025-26 academic year. Items were sourced from donation drives and 12-month student move-out. These events were hosted in partnership with two student groups: RCSA Students Expressing Environmental Dedication (SEED) and Huskies for Equitable Sustainability (HuES). Their involvement increased promotion and participation in the events on campus. For example, SEED piloted a 1-week clothing donation collection program in residence hall laundry rooms in February 2026. SEED students monitored collection bins and collected over 350 pounds of clothing to be used in a March 2026 pop-up event. The work by students in SEED proved the feasibility of donation collection in residence halls, which is now part of this long-term project. SEED students’ continued support in the Husky Goods program will provide our team with a way to collect donations, reach new volunteers and advocate for a thrifting mindset in UW residence halls.
Student leadership is central to the next phase of this project. We have requested up to three student interns to work on the Free Store in Summer Quarter 2026 through the Program on the Environment capstone. During their 10-week internship, students will develop the operations plan, schedule and initial marketing plan of the Free Store. Their work will culminate in the grand opening of the Free Store in September 2026. This internship will give these students experience in planning and implementation of a new program in a large organization with multiple stakeholders.
This grant would enable us to create a paid student employee position (funded in partnership with the Work Study program). The student employee would be responsible for continued operation of the store, donation inventorying and volunteer recruitment. As part of their duties, the student employee would also work with our current student partners (SEED and HuES) to support donation opportunities for students such as the residence hall laundry room collection program. In their role, the student manager will learn transferable skills in program management, cross-collaboration and circular system development. The UW Recycling team will onboard, train and mentor the student manager throughout the duration of their position. When the student manager leaves their position with UW Recycling, they will have gained valuable working experience transferable to other positions. The Free Store student manager position is intended to continue beyond the 2026-27 academic year. UW Recycling will work to receive funding through UW Facilities and Work Study to make it a perennial position, benefiting numerous students over multiple years.
The Free Store serves as an innovative educational resource. Store operations will require volunteers to assist shoppers, inventory donations and assist with overall operations. Student staff and volunteers will gain practical experience in retail operations, materials management and communications – all while supporting a broader culture change toward sustainability and mutual support.