Under move-out pressure, UCLA students create mountains of debris

Sept. 1, 2023 3 AM PT

Crumpled mattresses and twisted bed frames; torn-up couches leaking crumbly foam; halves of tables and broken bookshelves piled high among busted office chairs and abandoned dressers. Smaller items are buried within these structures — a single Birkenstock, a gaggle of paper bowls, a jewelry bag full of perfume samples.

These weeks before the fall term begins are like no other along the residential streets near UCLA as mountains of debris bare the disposable lifestyle of college students. Under pressure to move out by Sept. 1 and facing the prospect of forfeited deposits for leaving a mess behind, students abandon ideals of sustainable reuse and reducing landfill waste — and public curbsides become their free dump site.

Los Angeles sanitation officials brace themselves for the annual onslaught, logging more than 1,500 requests for bulk-item pickups in August, the highest for the fiscal year in Westwood. Bulky items can be reported for pickup — but with so many requests it’s impossible to figure out what exactly has been reported by trash day as the free-for-all dumping ground grows.

Students admit to the eyesore but say they run out of options when they rent from privately owned buildings.

A man tosses a mattress on the sidewalk with a pile of other debris.

“I hate how it looks — and know that lots of it won’t get used again,” said Hailey Ramsey, a recent pre-med graduate from Marin County. She’s managed to sell some of her furniture on Facebook Marketplace, in her neighborhood group chat and to the tenants taking over her apartment. But she and her roommates were intent on avoiding rental fines.

On move-out day, she hauled out two couches and a coffee table.

Nicole Exaltacion, a Westwood property manager, explained that most of the time when bulky items are left in units, her staff hauls them to the curb, too.

UCLA has taken steps to reduce the debris and promote “low-waste move-outs.” University-affiliated housing is furnished. Campus donation sites are set up for clothing, textiles and e-waste, according to a university statement.

But students nearby in private apartments are generally not included in email lists about these programs, which are tied to dorm move-outs in June, not private apartment move-outs in late July and August. UCLA said it is planning on “extending our efforts beyond university housing into the surrounding community.”

Across town around USC, Fabian Hernandez of Mosaic Student Communities, a property management firm for private off-campus housing, said its peak debris weeks are at the end of July. He tries to connect the departing tenants with the arrivals and recommends renting storage space to re-use furniture. But most of the time it’s left on the curb.

“It’s a conscious decision they make,” Hernandez said.

USC Housing also provides furnished dorms and apartments and has sustainability efforts in place for its university-affiliated housing, including teaming up with Goodwill Southern California to place donation bins around campus.

Mia Ward, a USC senior from Simi Valley who is studying accounting and business administration, said she knows about the campus donation bins but still sees smaller usable goods tossed onto the sidewalk.

“The reality is a lot of people are lazy and it’s easier to throw it on the curb,” she said. “Especially if you don’t have a car, it doesn’t feel like there’s much you can do other than leave it on the curb.”

Curb shoppers frequently try their luck in the heaps. Ward remembers finding a side table while helping a friend move.

A young man wearing a UCLA walks past discarded furniture on the sidewalk.

Ryan Cook and Kaleb Torress poked through what they called a “little gold mine” on Roebling Avenue in Westwood and heaved a scratch-free shelf into the back of their pickup truck. They live in Brentwood but just graduated from UCLA.

“I’m working in Westwood and could see stuff starting to conglomerate,” Torress said. They plan to use the shelf for plant storage.

For the record:

1:25 p.m. Sept. 1, 2023An earlier version of this article identified Marlon Vargas as Marlon Varga.

Marlon Vargas sported a larger haul in the back of his pickup, sagging but equipped with metal sidewalls. He comes to Westwood often during the beginning and the end of the school year, sometimes scanning twice a day for items he either uses to furnish his home or to sell.

“Many people in my neighborhood don’t have the money to buy this stuff new, so I sell it for cheap,” he said. But curb shoppers don’t make a dent in what’s left behind.

Students in private apartments close to UCLA said they wished the school offered a better way to dispose of their belongings, one that encouraged zero-waste practices or a chance for others to select items to reuse.

Leah Likin, a recent psychology graduate, described the hassle of driving to three donation sites, all rejecting her items because they were too beat up or because the sites were full for the day. “I want UCLA to help foster a culture of shared resources. Right now it feels like there’s no incentive in sharing rather than throwing stuff away.”

Discarded furniture is piled up outside a private apartment building

Jackie Pierce, a dance major from Orange County and a roommate of Ramsey’s, said even a resource list would be helpful.

Other universities have moved to address the dumping.

Malte Weiland, Georgia Tech’s senior sustainability project manager, said it should be as “easy as possible for residents to donate.” The school’s award-winning move-out waste reduction program brings six Goodwill trucks to campus each June. Donation bins are set up for non-perishable food for the campus food pantry and old blankets and fabric scraps go to a local animal shelter.

The school hires workers to sort through and separate donations for community groups and for students, making sure students who need it can receive free groceries and household items. The provisions are then stored on campus in rented PODS – waiting for the start of fall semester. All students have access to the donation sites and the salvaged goods from the PODS, and opportunities to donate.

Pierce was intrigued by the idea: “As much as I would love [Goodwill] trucks on campus, I really think including us in their emails and reminding us of outside resources would be an easy start.”

For now, students devoted to sustainability in other facets of their lives — like Likin, whose honors project touched on waste and climate anxiety — still have items to haul to the curb.

“It’s so normalized, I see trash and furniture out every day, so it doesn’t feel insane to do it.”