The concept is simple: Station Otterbein College faculty and staff near the dumpsters for the student residence hall move-out days-June 8-10, 2009-to help keep usable items out of the dumpsters, sort those items, and donate them to local charitable organizations.

The results are phenomenal: Last year, the effort reduced waste by 30-40 percent and sent one furniture truck, two large vans, three large pick-up trucks and one stuffed station wagon of reusable goods to charity. Among the items donated to MAP (Material Assistance Program) furniture bank, a local Somali school, AWARE (All Westerville Area Residents Enriched) and WARM (Westerville Area Resource Ministry) were 12 large boxes of food, 11 vacuum cleaners, 20 bags of clothes and more than 30 pillows. While retrieving the usable items, the faculty members also diverted recyclables from the Dumpsters to the recycling bins.

Organized by Psychology Chair Michele Acker, last year's event recruited 40 faculty and staff from 13 departments to man half a dozen dumpsters outside residence halls.

"Fearless faculty and staff rummaged through garbage bags and climbed through the dumpsters to facilitate the salvage effort which ran across 3 days," said Acker. "Although some of the donated items were left outside by the students, the vast majority were salvaged by volunteers who sorted the student trash bags before they went into the dumpster and who climbed into the dumpster and opened and sorted trash."

"As a result, the overall volume of the dumpsters was down considerably. Two of the dumpsters that have always been mounded up by move-out day were only half-full by Wednesday evening," she said.

Acker and fellow faculty members have rescued many reusable items from dumpsters over the past five years, but this year's Dumpster Dive for Charity is the second annual organized effort.

For more information about this year's Dumpster Dive for Charity, call Jenny Hill at (614) 823-1284.