Adreonna RaineyIt started with a shelf.
“We put up a temporary area, just a shelf that said ‘Unused Material’ with my email address,” said Jackie Skeeters, a third-year Interior Design student at the University of Kentucky. “There was no signage, no email sent out—I just wanted to see what people did. I came back a week later and it’s full.”
Inside the Gray Design Building, design students spend countless hours shaping foam, cutting wood, and layering acrylic into models that bring their visions to life. With this creative work comes higher costs, heavier workloads, and a lot of waste. Skeeters and assistant professor Jennifer Meakins in the School of Interiors at the University of Kentucky recognized this challenge. Eager to reduce waste, ease financial burdens, and boost productivity, Skeeters is now working with her mentor’s guidance to create the Reuse Room.
Skeeters’ preliminary version of the Reuse Room—that simple, unlabelled shelf—quickly overflowed with donated items. “I’d be working in the studio and see people walking over and taking things or dropping off extra materials they didn’t need,” she said.
Skeeters hopes that the Reuse Room will not only reduce waste in the College of Design but will also provide resources for students who face unique material needs. Design majors rely on physical materials to complete their coursework, requiring frequent trips to supply stores and significant out-of-pocket expenses. In addition to the university’s mandatory $696 semester fee, design students pay a $686 studio fee. This fee covers some expenses, but not all. Many materials are only sold in bulk, so students have to purchase in large quantities, which typically means there is an abundance of leftovers once their project is finished.
From stacks of cardboard to piles of scrap wood and foam, leftover materials can quickly add up. Without a system for reuse, most of them end up in the landfill despite being perfectly usable. For students demonstrating financial problems as well as studio deadlines, the Reuse Room will help diminish those challenges and give materials a second life.
As the school year continues, Skeeters continues to work to design a permanent space to store and organize the materials, with the hope of creating an enduring system that promotes sustainability, lowers costs for students, and fosters collaboration within the design community.
