The expression “what goes around comes around” can generate one of several distinct responses in members of the University of Utah community: some begin humming the catchy opener to Beyonce’s 2011 hit, “Best Thing I Never Had,” some think about the concept of karma and imagine doing good deeds or some think of the Sustainability Office’s biannual pop-up thrift shop event on campus. If you’re humming and imagining kindness right now, let me tell you about the campus event that turns someone’s discards into someone else’s newfound treasure.
What Goes Around Comes Around, also known by its lovably clunky acronym WGACA, pronounced “wuh-gah-kah,” is a free, on-campus, pop-up thrift shop that promotes a circular economy and moves our campus closer to being a zero-waste community. As of November 2024, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency defines a circular economy as one that “keeps materials and products in circulation for as long as possible” by reducing the quantities of materials used, redesigning items to use fewer resources, and recycling so-called “waste” materials into new products. In other words, a circular economy is built upon the well-known principles of reduce, reuse, and recycle. WGACA creates this circular economy by collecting donations from students at the end of the semester, sorting them and then offering them for free in a pop-up event at the start of the following semester.
Students donate gently used items such as linens, clothing, kitchen supplies, unopened food and other dorm supplies. At the end of the Fall 2024 Semester, students donated 425 pounds of materials—nearly double what was donated at the end of the previous fall semester! At the end of the Spring 2024 Semester (when more students traditionally move out of on-campus housing) students donated an astounding 8,100 pounds of materials—a slight decrease from the previous spring’s donations of 8,400 pounds.
The poundage of these materials is impressive, but what does this really mean? Picture the beloved 9th & 9th Whale: the 8,100 pounds of donated materials weighed as much as nearly six of this iconic sculpture! Now imagine that whale made entirely of the donated items—a jumbled mix of mini-fridges, spare T-shirts, ramen cartons, sequined outfits, pillows, shoes, textbooks, class book sets and so much more.
Behind the scenes, Sustainability Office staff and student interns are collecting, weighing and organizing the many donations sourced from collection bins in dorm hall lobbies and other locations across campus. Emma Miller, a student intern in the Sustainability Office, loves participating in this awesome service and says the office gets a little bit of everything donated. At the beginning of the following semester, the staff and students of the Sustainability Office organize the donations over several days, eventually opening the doors of the pop-up event to the U community, where students can shop with their friends, occasionally noticing their own donated items at the event.
The event held in August 2024 saw 1,025 shoppers come through the event, making it an incredibly popular back-to-school tradition on campus. Ava Curtis, an engagement intern with the Sustainability Office, has sorted and weighed donations for several WGACA events, and says students love the pop-up thrift store. In particular, the one right before class starts draws a huge crowd with people lining up before the event to get in and check it out. Ross Bello, another student intern at the Sustainability Office, recalls finding a large trout-shaped pillow, which now resides within the Sustainability Office, and Curtis often wears a pair of yellow corduroy pants that she got from the fall WGACA event.
Items that are not given back to the campus community during the pop-up thrift shop are then donated to organizations working locally, like Big Brothers Big Sisters, which received more than 300 pounds of linens after the close of the August 2024 thrift shop. WGACA is an ever-growing event on campus and Sustainability Engagement & Events Coordinator Kara Freedman looks forward to expanding the program. “WGACA has gotten a lot bigger since I started here in 2022, and I am excited to see it continue to grow,” she said.
As students eagerly anticipate donating or finding their own treasures in upcoming WGACA thrift shops, they can participate in the on-campus circular community right now by bringing donations to the Basic Needs Collective when it is receiving contributions. Students interested in volunteering their time can look for a Saturday Service event held by the Bennion Center, follow the Sustainability Office on social media or reach out to the Sustainability Office directly.
“I also hope that this event encourages students to focus more on reuse and buying less. It’s good for the wallet and great for the planet,” said Miller.
Though WGACA doesn’t create an exact circular economy, it does provide needed products to the campus community for free while preventing these items from being sent to landfills. Bello is optimistic that student demand and donations will sustain this on-campus circular economy, “I am excited to see WGACA do so well, and I hope that the future ones will continue or expand,” he said. Looking forward, Freedman has immediate plans to grow WGACA’s potential for donations, starting this spring during move-out when collection bins will be situated in the new Impact & Prosperity Epicenter building and additional bins will be placed in Lassonde Studios. Be on the lookout for information about the August pop-up thrift shop event—you may find your own fish-shaped pillow!