Sustainable Consumption and Student Behavior: The Impact of Resale Platforms on Waste Reduction in Campus Trading Systems 37 views

The advantages of short-term convenience are often in competition with the imperatives of long-term sustainability. A prototype digital marketplace for local, trust-based exchange among students was developed. The system integrates user-verification through university credentials and a scheduling feature that simplifies pick-ups and donations. By reducing transaction friction and enhancing safety, the prototype demonstrates how modest technical interventions can extend product lifecycles and reduce end-of-semester waste. Testing focused on usability and response efficiency showed that verified-user models substantially increase posting and completion rates, suggesting that improved interface design and institutional authentication can make reuse systems more reliable and attractive. By mediating relationships among affordability, convenience, and sustainability, resale platforms influence student consumer behavior and waste reduction efforts in campus trading systems. Drawing on institutional documents, sustainability reports, and primary evidence from UVA’s ReUSE and Hoos ReUse programs as well as student marketplace activity, the study finds that resale platforms reshape consumption by normalizing reuse and redefining ownership as circulation. Their effectiveness, however, depends on institutional trust and communication. When universities legitimize and integrate these platforms, they transform isolated trading into systemic sustainability practice. The research concludes that sustainable technology succeeds only when embedded in supportive social and institutional contexts.

BS (Bachelor of Science)

English

All rights reserved by the author (no additional license for public reuse)

2025-12-12