When college kids don't have to buy it, they most likely won't care where it goes as long as it's out of their sight.  Buy/toss/upgrade...waste...waste...waste...gotta have the next best thing even though the old model works fine....keep up with the Joneses....fill up the landfill because that's what it's for, right?

Someone stated  above that some college kids might not know where a thrift store is....give me a break...they probably know where all the bars are....so look in the phone book...DUH!!!!  

Todays kids are shamefully wasteful, and Mom and Dad have most likely help to shape that behavior with their own throw-away attitudes....and with all the talk about being 'green' you'd think that college campuses would be a hotbed of the 'recycle, reuse, or pass onto someone else mentality'.  Of course, there's money to be made in rescuing perfectly good items from dumpsters...the old adage of one man's junk.....but it sure doesn't make up for that wasteful mindset of buy/toss/upgrade.  

As an apartment manager in a college town for many years, I believe I can speak on the habits of your average college student at moving time.  Much of the waste is because packing is the last thing on a many a student's mind.  Let's say the last day of classes is on May 16th, graduation on the 18th and moveout day on the 31st.  Those last 11 days are more likely to be spent searching for a job or starting a new job, partying with all your friends for "the last time", or (this happens a lot) looking for an apartment for June 1st.  Besides packing, places have to be cleaned to get your security deposit back.  This cannot be done the day of moving so plenty of food, dirty clothes, chairs, fans, beds, cleaning supplies, etc. get thrown out to "save time".  I once had a girl fill an entire 3 yard dumpster with her clothes, food and shoes.  Hundreds/thousands of dollars flushed.

I am going back to the same luxury apartment complex that I left and we have trash day three times a week.  Since we have valet trash pick up, people leave their trash outside but it's not really outside since we're completely covered on the interior.  The  couple across the hall from me left a leather laptop bag (no real wear and tear), martinii glasses, and also a vcr/dvd player.  I took them and also someone else also trashed another leather laptop bag which I gladly took...there were also angora sweaters, beautiful skirts, shirts, high quality wool.  I took all of it and if I didn't want it, I got Goodwill to pick it up.  I've never jumped in a dumpster nor ever will...most people will leave great pieces of furniture outside of a dumpster such as an old wooden coffee table that could be refurbished...it's all about how creative you are!  

As a college student, I can vouch for the fact that oftentimes it is too expensive to ship large items back home and too expensive to pay for storage. In my dorm, anything abandoned or not wanted  at the end of the year is collected up and auctioned off at the beginning of the next term in order to fund activities. My dorm is in an upper middle class neighborhood, and I find that when I walk home the night before trash day I can many times find perfectly useable items sitting on the curb. I got a Sony CD boombox that works perfectly. All it needed was an antenna. I also got 3 or 4 of those collapsible aluminum frame chairs people bring to outdoor events. Then there was the 27 inch TV with the scratch on the screen that isn't visible while turned on. The reception is fine, but the DVD inputs in back are bad. I'll have to see if it's worth fixing, and if not, it didn't hurt to try. I can see why a person of means might reject such items, but for a college student they are perfect. When I used to live in an apartment I got plenty of stuff from the dumpster, including a mountain bike, a set of glass tumblers, a brand new sports-themed metal garbage can, and a shelf for the garage. When other tenants kneww they were throwing out something someone else might want, they tended to put it on the side of the dumpster rather than in it, for easier, cleaner taking.

As a college student, I can confirm that it is oftentimes too expensive to ship large items home or to pay for storage. At my dorm, all unwanted/abandoned items are collected at the end of the year and auctioed off at the beginning of the next term in order to fund dorm activities. My dorm is in an upper middle class neighborhood, and walking home the night before trash day, many is the time I have found items left on the curb and ripe for the taking. I got a Sony CD boombox that was missing an antenna but still worked perfectly. I also got 3 of those collapsible aluminum frame cloth chairs people bring to outdoor events, complete with carrying bags. Then there was the 27 inch TV with a scratch on the screen that wasn't noticeable when turned on. The reception is fine but the DVD inputs are bad. If it's not worth repairing, at least it didn't cost me anything to try. I can see why a person of means might have thrown these things out, but for a college student it's just fine.

When I used to live in an apartment, I rescued many perfectly serviceable items from the trash heap, including a mountain bike, a set of glass tumblers, a like new sports-themed metal waste basket, and an entertainment center I used as a shelf in the garage. When the other tenants knew they were throwing away something someone else might want, they tended to leave it on the side of the Dumpster rather than in it, for cleaner, easier taking.  

I was going to try to repair an electric weedeater once, I thought, repair rather than replace.  The repair shop wanted  $40 just to take it in, and $80 to check it out to see what needed to be repaired. I bought a new electric weedeater for $50. Then when I put it out to be picked p by my recycling company, it took two weeks for it to be removed, and I called the recyclers to let them know it was there.......!

Annie

I will play devils advocate here and say that charities sometimes DO NOT make it easy to donate.  I hate having yard sales and would much rather donate items than throw them out, but I REFUSE to donate to Goodwill anymore.  I had an entire living room set I wanted to donate to them and they said they would pick it up but only if it was out on the curb.  Since I was alone and all the men I knew were on a military deployment and my nearest family members were 4 states away I had no help to get the entire set downstairs.  Even after explaining this to them they declined over $2,000 worth of 2 year old furniture because they would have to carry it down a flight of stairs.  Luckily, a local youth center was more than willing to carry it down and cart it away.  The next time I tried to donate to Goodwill I had an entire trunk full of cleaned, working items to donate but when I got to Goodwill they refused to take it because they weren't "packaged" properly (apparently using black garbage bags to haul the clothes in wasn't good enough for them), when I offered to remove the items from the bags they said it had to be boxed or they couldn't take it.  Well, sc--w you!

Right now I have an entire room full of stuff I want to donate, including a working 19 inch color TV, working Playstation and a very nice full set of heavy duty stainless steel cookware, but it would take me several trips to drive it for donation, but no one will come pick it up!  So if I want to donate it I have to clean it, pack it, load it, make 3 40 mile round-trips in my vehicle at $4 per gallon, and unload it.  Talk about beggars being choosers!  I'm GIVING YOU THIS STUFF FOR FREE, how about SOME cooperation on your part!  Right now throwing it all in the trash sounds very attractive.  (And don't get me started on Freecycle type situations, wasting an entire day waiting for someone to hopefully show up to take one item off my hand, forget it!)

Please watch "the Story of Stuff" by Annie Leonard.  It's a 20-minute film about stuff - where it comes from and where it goes when we're done with it.

http://www.storyofstuff.com/ or Google Story of Stuff

It does annoy me to see what people will leave at Goodwill and get a tax deduction for--dirty, broken, unuseable items, that the charity will probably have to pay to get rid of. That may be how they got to be so difficult for the other poster.  My husband gets mad when I won't let him take stuff like that over there. I would like to know of resources to recycle old computers, clothes, and appliances if they're not fit to donate. My position is that if it's not good enough for our family, it's not good enough to donate.

If people do have to drive a  major distance to donate their stuff to charities, I would claim the mileage to do it on my tax return as charitable mileage.

This "concept" of throwing away perfectly good possesions has come about with a generation of people post Great Depression era. My parents and grandparents are horrified act the way one of my family members goes through homes, cars and other items that were expensive to buy. But if that were not bad enough, I see people doing this to each other, look at the divorce rate! If you don't like your spouse, just ditch them and get another.

P.S. I majored in Sociology in college.