Project Second Life: Call for Volunteers for 2021 Pilot
In this blog, Shuhaib and Beth detail their ‘Project Second Life’ and call for volunteers to help!
Project Second Life is a go! As an idea born out of the Engage for Change programme, the project will aim to bridge the gap between student leavers in one academic year and freshers arriving a few months later, in a bid to reduce the volume of waste going to the landfill during move-out and the demand for brand new goods during move-in! The idea is simple: provide a convenient opportunity for student leavers to drop off unwanted but perfectly functional items (like utensils, lamps, laundry racks, stationery, etc.) on campus, work with local storage businesses to store the items over the summer break and then hold a trash-to-treasure event in Freshers’ Week. Proceeds from the event are then saved for the following year’s summer storage requirements, serving as a model that can be sustained and expanded over time while benefitting both the student community and local businesses. See below its process:
We are excited to announce that we are currently planning to run our first ever pilot this summer within Darwin College to prove the concept and identify strengths and weaknesses to build on in future years. We have already started engaging with the student community and members of staff within Darwin College, and as we start making concrete plans to bring the project to life, we will need any help we can get. In particular, we are looking for energetic individuals who would be keen to support with activities around marketing, communication and logistics for the project (such as making posters, responding to email inquiries from fellow students, managing collection of items donated, coordinating the trash-to-treasure event, etc.).
If you are passionate about sustainability, if you are concerned about the wasteful consumerist society that we live in and if you are keen to do something about it, Project Second Life may just be the initiative for you to take part in and we would absolutely love to hear from you!
What’s in it for you? We can all agree that the personal satisfaction from achieving the project outcomes will be priceless, but you will also learn a lot from the experience on the ground, meet like-minded individuals, grow your network, learn to deal with unexpected challenges and obstacles while working as part of a well-knitted team, and much more! In fact, this experience may empower you to implement Project Second Life or undertake your own sustainability-oriented project within your college!
We are expecting the pilot to kick off in August, with the trash-to-treasure event to be held in early October. Ideally, if you could be part of the team for the duration of the pilot at least, that would be amazing. But don’t worry if you expect to have other commitments over the course of the pilot — you can commit as much or as little time as you can afford. We would welcome anyone who, like us, wants to make a difference! Please contact Beth (btd32@cam.ac.uk) or Shuhaib (sm2212@cam.ac.uk) if you are interested in being part of the Project Second Life team or if you simply want to find out more about the initiative for now.
