It’s the end of an academic year, and undergraduate students have been busying themselves packing to go home. But after filling the car full of all sorts of accumulations, the remaining clothes, kettles, toasters, etc all lie unwanted but still working. And that’s not even touching on the subject of food. Luckily, bins are handy and close by, and the privileged student only needs to pack things into black bags to forget about them.
Therefore, I decided to see if I could salvage few things, possibly for myself or for friends, or for many of the people I eat with at Food Not Bombs. These are 5 things that I learnt from that experience…
1. Opening up shop to sell mini-make up bags on campus is not a good idea
After picking up 2 bags full of mini make-up bags and strangely scented branded masques, it was clear students aren’t too concerned if their make-up bag was Guess/Prada or not. Best not to open shop based on that. Or that this student should leave entrepreneurship to someone else. Whatever George Osborne says.
2. Moving duvet from one house to another is ‘not worth the effort’
After being laughed at by several students for daring to dive into a skip, I asked them if any of the (damp!) duvets and clothes were theirs’. I received a comment from one of them that duvets were “so much hassle” and that he just buys a new one when he moves in to a new place, and gets it delivered. They are so cheap, apparently, that taking one from a skip was humorous.
3. The large bins have a handy curved end on the lid on which you can climb on if you need to dive right in
Trying to dive in for something that resembled a perfect watermelon required some ingenuity; my arms were a little too short for the reach required. However, the lid of the large bins on campus has a groove that is surprisingly easy to climb onto.
The results of this discovery were not as satisfying. The watermelon was hollowed out and clearly used as a punch bowl. The only gain I received – sticky fingers covered in slight rotting stench.
4. Do not go skipping for duvets after it has rained the night before.
(Some) students are lazy creatures. Do not expect duvets to be put in bin liners and then thrown in the skip. Instead expect landfill for the next few years to be full of rotting, damp duvets from rich youth.
5. Backpacks with “2 kool 4 skool” scribbled on them are soooooo kitsche, they’re cool (or kool?)
Whoever threw that Jansport rucksack out – you’re clearly missing out. It’s like so Ironic, ya know? #hipsterskipping