College student cleans up

Continuing our short series about summer student projects, here you see Aviva Hamavid, a college student intern, participating in our freecycling program. This is based on the idea of a swap shop. You bring in office materials you don't need, and other people take them.

“The idea is to take existing supplies which, for one reason or another, are not being used and give them a new life where they can be used,” says Aviva's supervisor, BIDMC’s Sustainability Coordinator Amy Lipman. “Sharing these items keeps them out of landfills and helps save money throughout the medical center.” We do this twice a year, and the events have made paper, hanging folders, file folders, binders, unused toner cartridges, envelopes, labels, desk organizers and other useful office items available for free to all staff. (Regular readers will remember that I also ran my own version of this last year.)

You see Aviva and Amy in action in the video below, where they have set up the freecycle station in a corner of our cafeteria.

If you cannot view the video, click here.