Located under the Drake Hall Tunnel, the Free Store is an initiative by Colgate's Office of Sustainability that aims to reduce landfill waste of usable goods, while increasing equitable access to items students need.
Open Hours:
Tuesdays, 3:30-6:00 PM
Fridays, 2:30-5:00 PM
Closures will be announced on Instagram @Colgatesust.
Donating
To donate, please see our accepted items below and bring your clean, usable items during open store hours only. Do not leave donations outside of the Free Store during closed hours.
Accepted Items:
- Clothing, Shoes, Hangers
- Bedding, Towels
- School Supplies
- Kitchen Supplies
- Small Functional Electronics
- Lamps, Fans, Mirrors
- Laundry Hampers, Shower Caddies
- Small Furniture
- Mini-fridges & Microwaves
Not Accepted Items:
- Damaged or Stained Clothing
- Broken or Overused Items
- Large Furniture
- Any Food (take it to the on-campus food pantries instead!)
- Mattress Toppers
- Used Makeup and medications
- Undergarments and socks
Important Shopping Notes:
- All Colgate students are invited to shop and donate.
- Only 5 people are permitted in the Free Store at a time.
- Only take 5 items per person per day. Only 1 of the 5 can be a red-tagged (high-value)
- All items are completely free.
- Check out with Free Store staff before leaving! We only take the item number to track our inventory and do not collect any personal information.
- Be excited that you are preventing landfill waste on campus!
The Center for Outreach, Volunteerism, and Education (COVE) oversees the end-of-year program to collect usable goods from students and redistribute them to community partner organizations around the region.
Colgate is located in Madison County, which features a two-stream recycling process. Always ensure to properly sort recycling into the bin for its proper stream:
- Paper products
- Bottles and cans
All recycled items must also be clean to avoid contamination in the recycling process. For more information about Madison County's recycling guidelines:
Obsolete or broken electronic devices (eWaste) should always be recycled.
Small eWaste items can be brought the ITS help desk on the 3rd floor of the Case-Geyer Library or the eWaste drop box in the Coop.
For larger amounts of eWaste, simply collect eWaste in a common area in your department or office. When enough waste is collected, submit a work order to have it collected and properly recycled. All of Colgate's eWaste is taken to EWASTE+, an R2/RIOS and NAID certified recycler in New York State. Learn more about what can and cannot be recycled at Colgate by visiting the EWASTE+ website.
Accepted items include:
- Cell phones
- Batteries
- Compact discs
- Digital cameras
- Cables and cords
- Printer cartridges
- Calculators
- Other small electronic devices
Larger Electronic Devices
Larger devices such as Colgate-owned television sets, computers, and printers are collected by ITS. Call the ITS Service Desk at 315-228-7111 for assistance.
Terracycle is a company that offers recycling solutions for unusual items. We have several Terracycle specialty collection boxes, including for plastic packaging, razors and blades, and disposable masks. If you have an unusual item on campus that you would like to know if the Office of Sustainability can recycle, contact us at sustainability@colgate.edu.
Starting with a pilot program in Spring of 2021, the members of the Colgate Community Garden established a composting program with a majority of the student houses along Broad Street. The 5 gallon buckets of compost are collected weekly, weather permitting, and are taken to a space near the Community Garden, where it is then used to fertilize the garden beds. Campus houses and apartments with fewer residents can also be provided with a compost tumbler on site that is emptied only as needed.