Vacating your Milton Park apartment? There's an alternative to dumping your stuff on the curb

It's spring in Milton Park,justeast ofMcGill University, andas the semester winds down, students vacating the neighbourhood'srowhouses and mid-rise brick buildings have begun clearing out their apartments.

Discarded desks, chairs, lamps and bags full of winter clothing and beddingare already pilingup on Milton Park's sidewalks the consequence of departing students juggling hasty moves with exams.

Come May 1, that scenewillget worse, saysLauren Harrison, a McGill student about to graduatewith a degree in bioengineering.

"Every year the streets of this specific neighbourhood are lined with trash to the point where it's disgusting. It's overflowing the sidewalks.It's fully consumed the neighbourhood," she said.

Buton Monday, a small orange buggy quietlypulled up outside Harrison's apartment, and a trio of workers carried out a printer, a desk, some lamps and a few pillows. They loaded up the buggy, drove it a block away and deposited their haulin a waiting shipping container.

The items will get a second life. They're destined to be donated to low-income families or students.

"This is a great way to help," said Jean-Sbastien Matte, the general director of the Socit pour l'action, l'ducation et la sensibilisation environnementale de Montral (SAESEM), an environmental non-profit.

SAESEM's project in Milton Park, called Trash2Treasure, runs April 24 until May 1. Thisis thesixth iteration,andif this year is like past years, according to Matte, it will preventseven tonnes of material from ending up in the landfill.

In 2022, 150 people donated items, all of which were recycled.

Some of what is collectedends up at the Salvation Army or Habitat for Humanity, whileother itemsare donated to groups such asthe Welcome Collective, which helps newcomers to Montreal.

Donating items is easy, Matte said. Peopleneed only make an appointment with SAESEM, which they can do via the organization's website, and have the items ready when the workers and volunteers come to pick them up.

The project is important, Matte said, because it gives items a second life. It's also good for the environment.

The orange buggy that picks up the material is electric, and the project contributes to countering over-consumption.

"There's plenty of material out there," Matte said. "It's in good condition. It has worked for five, 10, 20 years. Why shouldn't it be good for another 20 years, another 40 years? It can be repaired; itcan be fixed."

Harrison heard about the pickup through the Students' Society of McGill University, whichhas worked with SAESEM to help gather the material in the neighbourhood for six years an attempt to find a use for some of the contents of students' apartments that ended up discarded on Milton Park's sidewalks on moving day.

"I take pretty good care of my stuff," Harrison said, "so I'm excited to know that somebody else is going to get use out of it."