From dumpster diving to digital infrastructure.

In 2022, Founder JJ Flores went dumpster diving as a freshman at USC during move-out. Born and raised in South LA, they couldn't believe how bin after bin, filled with fans, bedding, clothing, and more, was picked up by the dumpster truck and taken to the landfill.

They gathered some friends and collected as much as they could out of there to donate it to local organizations and community members. At this point, JJ, like a lot of people, thought that if only there were better relationships with external partners like Goodwill or Habitat for Humanity, we could address this crisis!

After a year of working with the university to figure out how to get better donations, they realized something. If we just keep donating our things every year, the cycle of overconsumption never really ends—students just buy new every year to "donate the guilt away" during move out.

They realized a move-out to move-in program was the answer, so that winter, they piloted their idea.

The pilot went viral. EcoDorm LLC was established, and it marked USC's first time partnering with a student company for a major initiative. We ran a full-scale move-out to move-in program, collecting a guesstimated 40,000 lbs from 43 buildings in 17 days, and then sold it back to students.

We established a partnership with the California Center for Climate Change Education, allowing us to hire students to help on this mission every year since. Our sights grew beyond USC and we realized there were systemic issues preventing schools across the country from adopting dorm reuse programs.

So, we set to work creating educational resources like our business plan calculator, our database of move-out programs, and began working on a project that would change everything.

We launched our software, ReDorm—the exact digital platform we wish we would've had when we were running our own program in the dumpsters.

Will you join us?