The Three R's: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle

Current economic conditions have hit everyone hard, it seems nobody has escaped the latest economic downturn. Oil prices are sky high, the dollar is down, and unemployment is up. However, there are some positive unintended consequences to these conditions which are very closely related to what we do here at the MSU Surplus Store. During times of prosperity, there is no need to think twice before replacing furniture, buying a new desk, or investing in a new vehicle. However, the current reality has forced us all to take a serious look at our consumption and think of new ways to reuse, recycle, and cut costs. The MSU Surplus Store is a great place to save money on a variety of affordable as well as higher end items for your business or home!

At a basic level, the MSU Surplus Store takes items that are no longer needed by the university and finds new uses for these items. Our goal is to create revenue for the university by selling products no longer needed to people that do have a need for these products. The great appeal of this system is that our customers can find very unique items at very reasonable prices. This also has significant environmental utility, as these items are being reused and kept out of landfills. Ultimately, this helps to reduce the environmental footprint of both the university and the community.

At the MSU Surplus Store, we work very hard to prevent items from ending up in landfills. In the event that items cannot be sold, we have a number of methods of reuse and repurposing that can prolong the lives of various products or even give them new life in different forms. The American economic decline has not only brought new perspectives to the ideas of reuse, but also has caused the prices of raw materials to increase significantly.

We are avid recyclers of not only of paper goods, but also metals, freon, wood, and plastics. Last fiscal year alone one million pounds of metal was sold by the MSU Surplus Store for recycling into new and useful products. Additionally, we also responsibly recycle E-Waste (previous post by Tim on this process) which helps keep thousands of computers from ending up in landfills and gives obsolete computers new life as useful components are stripped from the old machines and the raw materials are reused in newer components.

Hopefully, as economic conditions improve we will not lose sight of the importance of reducing, reusing and being conscious of our impact on the environment. While the economic advantages of reuse and recycling might become less relevant as the economy rebounds, the ecological advantages of these practices will remain relevant for generations and the MSU Surplus Store will continue with its core goals of accomplishing these things for Michigan State University.