‘Swap Shops’ Redefine Campus Culture
- Natasha Spencer-Jolliffe
- Oct 17
- 8 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
Student-led Free Exchanges Changing Values, Consumer Habits
Across international and US campuses, a new sustainability trend is taking root: “swap shops” and free stores, designed to reduce dorm-room waste while easing students’ financial burdens.
According to the non-profit, PlanetAid, the average US student produces 640 pounds of trash every year. With approximately 60,781 enrolled students at New York University (NYU), one of the US's largest private universities, that could amount to almost 40 million pounds of discarded waste annually. University College London (UCL), the UK’s largest in-person university, had 51,793 students during the 2024/2025 academic year, generating a potential 33 million pounds of unwanted items.
Meanwhile, Boston-based Tufts University has found that its students leave behind a collective average of 230 tons of garbage in May and June.
Swap Shops Address the Challenge
Swap shop initiatives are helping to address this critical challenge.
Students at New York City's NYU and The New School are turning discarded dorm essentials into stylish second-hand specialties. The New Yorker recently described NYU’s swap shop initiative as a "dumpster-to-dorm boutique" that challenges consumer culture while fostering community exchange. NBC News noted that college swap programs “help undergrads and the environment” by diverting massive amounts of waste from landfills while saving students money.
Outside the US, institutions like UCL have launched reuse and recycling initiatives that have been honored for their waste reduction initiatives. Ranking 100 global universities by their commitments to recycling and sustainability, the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings puts Korea University at the top of the list in part for its Zero Waste recycling station initiative, followed by Swansea University and the University of Exeter, which take joint second place.
Together, these global initiatives reflect a cultural shift on campus—where sustainability is no
longer just about recycling but about rethinking consumption habits altogether.
Students Spearhead Change
According to The New York Post, The New School student Shannon Hughes—inspired by a class on “Waste Injustice”—gathered friends in the spring of 2024 to go dorm to dorm and collect unwanted items. The idea for the university’s first swap shop was born, and ahead of the fall semester, in August 2025, the school held its second annual “Free Sale,” offering students the opportunity to take items left behind by other students.
NYU opened its temporary pop-up, NYU Swap Shop, to students from August 23-30, 2025. After showing their IDs, students could pick from over 5,000 discarded items retrieved from dorms at the end of the school year. About 300 students reportedly attended the shop’s soft opening. Within the first few days, around 1,800 items had been snapped up, including clothes, mirrors, lamps, and 155 microwaves. A NYU video promoting its pop-up swap shop received almost a million views on TikTok and over 43,000 likes on Instagram, leading to a long line of eager swappers.
A NYU video promoting its pop-up swap shop received almost a million views on TikTok and over 43,000 likes on Instagram, leading to a long line of eager swappers.
As the swapping movement grows globally, temporary shops are staying open for longer. The University of North Carolina has launched its first campus free store, Seahawk Swap Shop, which is open between August 25-November 25, 2025, from 11 am-4 pm.
One of the University of Exeter’s newest sustainability initiatives is its Gift it, Reuse it (GiRi) swap shop program. “Staff and students have long been aware of the amount of waste generated during move-out periods, much of it made up of perfectly good items, and our scheme aimed to tackle this directly,” Meg Haslam, who runs the University of Exeter’s Gift it Reuse scheme, told The Earth & I.
In its first year, the GiRi scheme successfully prevented 8,554 items, weighing a total of 1,623 kg (3578 lbs), from entering waste streams. It prevented an estimated 18,016 kgs (20 tons) of CO₂ emissions—the amount that would have been released if these items had entered waste streams and been incinerated for energy. In its second year, the program received approximately 15,500 donations, weighing a total of 3,510 kg (7738 lbs)—nearly doubling the year one totals.
Broadening Existing Sustainability Initiatives
Swap shop initiatives build on broader “free store” and reuse programs already present on some campuses. NYU taps into its Green Apple Move Out (GAMO) program, which collects and donates would-be dorm throw-away items each year. Designed to cut down on waste, the initiative reports 20,000 pounds of clothes, cleaning equipment, and household goods collected annually.
Kent State University’s textile reuse program has diverted more than 221 tons of materials from landfills in just five years. At the University of Georgia, the campus “swap shop” offers a peer-to-peer reuse model for clothing and supplies. Over 100 members turned out for the University of Michigan’s lab-based swap shop that opened in 2024, which diverted 563.4 pounds of material from landfills. The university found that in-person swap shop labs are almost 23.5 times more effective than online shopping when comparing average daily diversion rates.
Meanwhile, coming soon to the UK’s University of Exeter Repair Café is a new circular initiative aimed at extending the life of everyday items through repair rather than replacement.
“By encouraging repair over disposal, the café supports a more sustainable and circular approach to consumption,” Nicola Corrigan, Head of Sustainability Programmes within the Finance, Infrastructure and Commercial Services department at the University of Exeter, told The Earth & I.
“In many cases, repair offers greater environmental benefits than recycling, especially for electronics, which often require energy-intensive processes to break down,” Corrigan added. The first Repair Café session is planned for November 25, 2025.
Universities worldwide are putting collaboration, commitment, and action across the school network at the center of their initiatives. Alongside developing its new sustainability dashboard, for example, The New School is a member of New York City’s long-standing Carbon Challenge and the higher education-focused Second Nature Commitment.
The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education’s Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (AASHE STARS) enables universities to self-report their sustainability efforts via a comprehensive framework. There are currently 382 institutions with a STAR rating. Gold members NYU and silver members The New School and Kent State University are on the list.
Swap Shops Support Campus Environmental Efforts
In September 2025, UCL said it was reviewing its waste management services after “falling short of our ambitious recycling targets set out in our Sustainability Strategy.” The British university aims to lower its overall waste by 10% by 2027 and reach an 85% recycling rate by 2034.
UCL and the University of Exeter have deployed Warp It, a dedicated reuse platform, to facilitate the giving, getting, and loaning of surplus assets within the institution. In 2024, the UCL used Warp It to reuse over 7,000 items. The initiative enabled the university to divert 26 tons from going to waste and save 17 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2). Today, the UCL’s swap shops are a firm part of the university’s reuse program, with free clothes exchange events held throughout the academic year.
The initiative enabled the university to divert 26 tons from going to waste and save 17 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2).
The University of Exeter diverted 50.5 tons of waste from standard waste streams in 2023/24, increasing the amount to 138.42 tons in 2024/25. The university has recently implemented a new recycling scheme and has published its Circular Economy Strategy 2024 – 2030. As of October 2024, the university had saved over $671,366 through the redistribution of surplus items.
Shaping Student Culture
“Beyond the immediate benefits of waste reduction, we believe GiRi plays a transformative role in shaping campus culture by embedding values of inclusivity and community into everyday university life,” said Haslam.
In a 2022 study on textile swapping, US researchers found that swapping partners' and participants’ love for clothes are critical factors that determine overall swap satisfaction and success. Temporary swapping offers a transition to “sustainable consumption practices,” said the researchers, “because it provides a middle ground between product ownership and non-ownership and thus facilitates gradual dematerialization of consumer lifestyle.”
Researchers in 2024 found that “formal clothing swapping has evolved into collaborative sharing practices, sometimes leading to circular social and economic developments.” Their results indicate that the cultural identity and motivations of the NextGen demographic (consumers aged 18-35) are spurring the growth of up-swapping systems, pushing leaders, in turn, to increase “sustainable efforts.” Environmental motives for swapping are stronger among those from “collectivist cultures,” they added.
Swap shop schemes also support incoming students in need and/or facing transport challenges. “With cost-of-living pressures growing for students, swap shops also offer a timely way to support those who may struggle to afford basic kitchenware or appliances when arriving at university,” said Corrigan.
“With cost-of-living pressures growing for students, swap shops also offer a timely way to support those who may struggle to afford basic kitchenware or appliances when arriving at university.”
Swap shops also assist international students, as they often arrive with few belongings and buy household items they can’t transport back home. Swap shops enable students to collect what they need at no cost, with programs like the University of Exeter’s GiRi collecting the same items at the end of the year for future students—at an estimated savings for students of around $20,000 - $27,000 during the initial Free Shops in September 2024.
Scaling Swap Shop Schemes
In the future, swap shop programs could become standardized across major universities, similar to dining hall composting or recycling systems. Programs like GiRi already offer replicable approaches, including localized collection, asset tracking, and redistribution. “Its originality lies in its simplicity and practicality—by localizing donation points within student residences, the scheme removes common barriers to participation and makes it easy for students to donate items safely and conveniently,” said Haslam.
The swap shop model can also decrease the need for large-scale storage facilities, making the programs work for institutions with limited space or resources. Multiple localized donation sites within student residences are more manageable, safe, and space-efficient. They can also be designed to fit the academic calendar, with donation periods timed to match contract end dates. “That means staffing, sorting, PAT [electrical safety] testing, and cleaning can all be planned in a way that works for each institution,” said Corrigan.
“What we’re seeing is a generational shift in how students view ownership, waste, and value,” said Haslam. “As today’s students move into their careers and households, they will carry these habits forward, choosing reuse over single-use, community benefit over individual waste, and transparency from the organizations they support,” Haslam added.
*Natasha Spencer-Jolliffe is a freelance journalist and editor. Over the past 10 years, Natasha has reported for a host of publications, exploring the wider world and industries from environmental, scientific, business, legal, and sociological perspectives. Natasha has also been interviewed as an insight provider for research institutes and conferences.
Editorial notes
Sources:
Interview with Meg Haslam, who runs the University of Exeter’s Gift it Reuse it Scheme
Interview with Nicola Corrigan, Head of Sustainability Programmes within the Finance, Infrastructure and Commercial Services department at the University of Exeter.