Shredded paper was scattered across the E-Comp grass one morning, and I thought,
“Someone must really not like whatever class that paper was for,” and I continued my walk towards Commons.
Sitting with my friend, he went on to tell me that the people on the sit-down mowers just go right over all the garbage, shooting it out from underneath like a confetti cannon. I was surprised he brought that up, as I had just walked past it a couple of minutes before this conversation. He went on to explain how he thinks the landscapers should pick up the garbage before mowing, but who should really handle this problem?
Most may think that if it’s not their trash, why should they pick it up, why should they care? Many of us call this our university home, and we should keep our home clean. The mass thought of “If I’m the only one doing it, it doesn’t make an impact,” only pushes people to not do their part. If one person did their part in effort to keep our campus clean of litter, there might just be a domino effect of everyone picking up litter.
Littering is a problem that everyone has been taught about since they were little; signs on the side of the road tell us the fines that follow if you are caught littering, it’s not a problem that few people are educated on. Besides the environmental effects of litter—birds eating plastic, squirrels eating cigarette butts, and making way to pollute our waterways near and far.
Doing our part to keep campus clean is our responsibility as much as it is to those who work for the university. Garbage, whether loose papers, cans, or pieces of plastic, are an easy pick-up; even one piece of garbage thrown into the trash can help make a small difference to the litter on campus.
Walking back from Hillyer Hall, I counted five trash cans, with two being near Hawk Hall. There are also dumpsters found near all Complexes, making it easy to toss any trash away. The look of garbage scattered across our campus takes away from the beautiful scenery that surrounds us each day.
