Lyah Muktavaram

PLAN: The Post-Landfill Action Network

The Post-Landfill Action Network (PLAN) cultivates, educates, and inspires the student-led zero waste movement. We inform students about the waste crisis and equip them with the necessary skills and resources to implement solutions to waste in their campus communities. PLAN empowers our generation to be changemakers. The way we use and dispose of Earth's resources is broken. We extract resources to make consumer goods, which soon end up in landfills. But our planet's resources are not infinite, and our trash is toxic. PLAN's mission is to build a national, student-led waste reduction movement which will help make the concept of waste obsolete. PLAN began at the University of New Hampshire, under the name of Trash2Treasure, as a program to reduce move-out waste. Student volunteers collected thousands of reusable items thrown out at the end of each year, cleaned and organized it all over the summer, then held a giant yard sale over move-in weekend. From its very first year, the program earned more than it cost to run – creating the nation's first student-led, self-sustaining program of its kind. In its first two years, PLAN at UNH has: - Diverted 65 tons of waste from UNH's waste stream - Achieved over $30,000 in sales - Donated 4 tons of food and clothing to local shelters - Saved UNH $6,000 in waste disposal costs - Saved students an estimated $125,000 by selling goods at a steep discount compared to local big box stores Visit our current online fundraising campaign: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/post-landfill-action-network-a-student-led-zero-waste-campus-movement/x/3816900