Traditionally at UVA, each department has been responsible for storing, securing, and exchanging their surplus equipment until it is picked up for disposal. This system created many inefficiencies and unfairly increased the workload and space requirements for each of the individual departments. Thus, in spring 2018 UVA Facilities Management (FM) began an effort to centralize this process, opening the university-wide ReUSE Store to handle all of UVA's surplus equipment. FM employees now pick-up and store nearly all of the extra equipment on grounds and list all of the surplus items on the ReUSE Store’s website, where departments can browse and request any of the listed items. Every other week, the items that are not requested by internal departments are sold to the community in a public sale. In the past, there was no standardized system for disposing of surplussed materials, and often they were simply thrown away. Thus, the ReUSE store's community sales have helped UVA significantly decrease their landfill waste generation.
Last summer, the Sustainable IT Working Group partnered with the ReUSE Store and UVA's Information Technology Services to discuss the possibility of including IT equipment in the ReUSE Store's surplus process in order to decrease the university's electronic waste generation. We have since started to include IT equipment in the internal departmental exchanges and are developing procedures for efficiently clearing surplus equipment's data so that we can include IT equipment in the ReUSE Store's community sales. Of course, securing sensitive information will remain the university's priority, but fortunately, UVA's cybersecurity team already has a procedure to access individual devices as an external security threat. We are working with them and the Chief Technology Officer to expand their process and ensure that all university data is secure. If we are successful, this will further allow for a large reduction in the university's e-waste outputs. For more information about disposing of old electronics safely, see the cybersecurity page.