KNOXVILLE, TENN. — A University of Tennessee research team launched Dumpster Treasures 2.0 in March 2026 to catalogue and redistribute reusable items discarded during student move-out in Knoxville. The nine-member team also created a public exhibit, Dumpster Treasures: Reclaiming Waste through Arts-Based Research, the same month.

During this year's move-out, the team uncovered electronics, furniture, clothing with tags and unopened personal care items, collecting roughly 7,200 items from a single dumpster that was only about one-third full. "Just about half was recoverable," project lead Chris Mayer said. "About a quarter of the items were either new, unused in their packaging or in new light condition." He said the remainder that qualified as true trash came to about 34%, adding: "In terms of what was true trash, it was about 34%."

Project coordinator Hannah Trammell said the volume recovered was sufficient to stage a redistribution event. "Even in just a third-full dumpster, it was still enough to set up a whole bazaar for people to take away our recoverable items to hopefully redistribute them," she said.

Trammell said community members were already retrieving discarded goods on their own. "A lot of parents who can't afford those things, we actually saw dumpster diving," she said.

Mayer described the disparity between those discarding items and those seeking them. "It does not place an immediate burden on me to go out and buy a new TI-84," he said. "Yet for someone in a pantry line or a redistribution line, it does — it places a burden on them to go buy a pair of socks or to buy a calculator for their high school kid who's in calculus class."

The team is working with UT facilities to brainstorm solutions to reduce recoverable waste. Proposed ideas include using vacant buildings over the summer as collection hubs that could later become redistribution centers, and creating a dumpster store where students and community members could access salvaged items.