ORONO – What do Black Bears leave behind for a yard sale? Almost anything, it turns out.

When the University of Maine’s nearly 4,000 residence hall students moved out for the summer last month, they left tons of furniture, electronic equipment, appliances, clothing and other miscellaneous items.

Rather than take it to landfills or burn it, UMaine hopes to recycle it at this year’s Black Bear Clean Sweep Yard Sale. The event is open to the public, rain or shine, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, June 5-7, at Estabrooke Hall on the university campus.

UM Property Management is partnering with the Bodwell Volunteer Center to dispose of the items. Proceeds benefit student volunteer programs and community activities.

“We have lots of televisions, minifridges, and lots and lots of clothes, sports equipment, white boards, desks and couches,” said Kevin Paul Taschereau, assistant coordinator of the Bodwell Center for Service and Volunteerism. “We have a lot of technology items – TVs, radios, computer monitors – and dishes.”

Nonperishable food items are donated to Crossroads Ministries and Resource Center in Old Town, which maintains a soup kitchen and food bank.

What the university can use – often the equivalent of nearly 100 gallons of laundry detergent, for instance – is separated out and used by university staff for institutional purposes. Hundreds of articles of clothing, some still new, previously have been donated to thrift stores from one end of the state to the other.

Taschereau said the annual yard sale reduces the amount of material and items that otherwise would be hauled to a landfill. Ongoing recycling efforts on campus also have reduced the number of discarded student property.

“We’re seeing a lot less stuff being thrown away,” he said. “We’re doing a lot more recycling, especially with the Green Campus Initiative.”

Taschereau said all of the yard sale items have been sorted, and “all of the stuff we’re selling is in good shape and all of the technology stuff works and has been tested. We’ve collected some really nice things that I wouldn’t have expected students to leave behind – but they did.”