SmithCycle

SmithCycle reduces end-of-year waste and gives viable goods a new life at Smith or in our broader community by collecting items left behind when students move out and cannot fit all of their things into storage bins, suitcases, or car trunks. 

For questions about the program please reach out to smithcycle@smith.edu.

2024 Dates & Locations

SmithCycle donation locations can be found in every house on campus. Look for a tarp in your basement or common space with the SmithCycle logo next to it. Signs will be put up in your house directing you to the right space. Donation collection happens in two waves.

Wave 1

Undergrad Move Out: Saturday, May 11–Monday, May 13

Wave 2

Senior Move Out: Monday, May 20–Wednesday, May 22

You can leave items before the waves start, but please don't leave items after May 22.

Sort items into five categories: winter clothing, other clothing, dorm supplies, books, and food and toiletries. Learn more.

2023 Results

Last year, we received an astounding 24,000 lbs (12 tons) of donations to SmithCycle. Of these donations, over 50% (7 tons) was clothing! 

Since 2021, SmithCycle has been keeping winter gear, bedding, task lamps, fans, room décor and school supplies on campus and giving them back to students via the International Students and Scholars Office and the Common Goods Resource Center. The Common Goods Resource Center, on the ground level of the Campus Center, offers basic-needs items free of charge to any student facing temporary or chronic financial hardship, no questions asked. However, only 12% of donations stayed on campus last year; the rest went to local community partners. 

Starting in summer/fall 2024, SmithCycle will aim to keep all books, housewares, school supplies, and winter clothing on campus, to provide to new and returning students during move-in. Other clothing and food/toiletries will still be donated to community partners. Through this program we hope to make sure all incoming students have everything they need for a successful year, and reduce the amount of new items that students need to buy!

Program History

After seeing move out waste firsthand as a Reunions student worker, Emmy Longnecker ’20J, a chemistry major and environmental science and policy minor, was determined to solve it. Longnecker worked with staff and faculty in CEEDS to create a two-semester special studies to understand the problem and develop a solution. Longnecker spent the first semester understanding waste on campus—how it is collected, who transports it and where it ends up. In the second semester, Longnecker focused on making connections and finding homes for reuse for a wide range of items. As a result of her efforts, SmithCycle was born. It is Smith’s first student-designed, comprehensive move-out waste reduction program.

For her work on this issue, Longnecker was awarded the Student Leadership Award in Environmental Sustainability in April 2019. After graduation in January 2020, Longnecker accepted a post-bacc position with CEEDS and Student Affairs to implement the program again for the 2019/2020 school year.

Since 2019, SmithCycle has grown significantly in volume of material. It has also weathered challenges, from the pandemic disrupting normal campus operations to sorting in a different location every year. In 2023, a significant effort was made to evaluate the program and shift it toward a more efficient, circular economy model, with items collected during move out staying on campus to be redistributed during move in. Looking to the future, SmithCycle will continue to grow and change to adapt to the needs and desires of students, as well as the campus community as a whole.