By Adriana Yarkin, Copy Editor
The bell has just rung, declaring the passing period between lunch and fifth. Getting up with my tray and peering into the three large bins standing against the wall, I’m met with a few seconds of confusion.
There is a mixture of garbage, food and recycling within each of the bins — despite the variation in color and label, which mark them individually as recycling, compost or garbage. There are even a few plates, which is funny because plates are reusable and belong in the dishes bin.
Walking to class a couple minutes later, I see more of the same — though this time, the discarded objects didn’t even make it to a bin. Trays covered with half-eaten food litter the hall. Plastic sandwich bags and used paper napkins are kicked aside by hurried feet.
The school has a littering problem.
And the problem keeps getting worse. Students are not taking the few seconds necessary to clean up after themselves and sort their garbage on a daily basis.
For many students, it’s a thoughtless oversight. It does, however, have very real consequences. It wastes real resources and directly affects real people.
“Recyclable” materials are really only recylcable if all the items in the bin are recyclable; the same goes for compostable materials. The school saves money when it produces less garbage, and the planet itself benefits from systematically using sustainable methods, such as composting and recycling.
As of the beginning of this year, the school had lost $3,000 worth of reusable plates. According to Assistant Principal Alanah Baron, the majority of the absent plates had been thrown into the bins. Metal utensils, similarly, have been lost — many thrown out, others taken home with students.
Not only is eating with floppy plasticware and paper plates a significant discomfort, but it is also very wasteful. Thankfully, there’s an easy fix: if your plate or silverware slides off your tray into a bin, reach down and pick it up (I know, easier done than said).
The current senior class is the first class not to have experienced the old building. What this means is, when we were underclassmen, the classes above us tended to hold a significant amount of appreciation for the new building because they knew how lucky they were..
Some of this respect, it seems, has been lost.
Our janitors work every night for eight hours in order to keep the school clean — they spend more time cleaning the school than we spend using it. They don’t finish until 10:30 p.m.
So it’s not just about the building; it’s about the people that keep it functional and comfortable. Our actions, careless and even disrespectful, directly affect them.
There are currently no repercussions for not picking up after ourselves, nor for sorting our food into the wrong bins. Furthermore, there isn’t even any significant amount of attention being drawn to the these actions.
The physical changes that must be made are very simple on the individual level — they don’t even take much effort. However, the school needs to look into ways to solve the issue as a whole.
Some people have suggested the possibility of restricting dining privileges to the cafeteria only, a feat which would require a different table set-up. Though I don’t support the idea, I recognize that our janitors spend hours every day cleaning messes left throughout the school, and the consolidation of students during lunch would decrease that time.
Instead, I suggest that ASB partner with the Green Team to put together presentations for the student body. Most students feel a much greater sense of responsibility to their peers than they do to adult authorities, and so if students who are leaving trash behind in the lunchroom get the message that their peers are bothered by it, then they are more likely to feel a sense of remorse and reciprocity.
Similarly to what many students experience at home, respect goes both ways. Just as doing your dishes may lessen tension between you and your mom, picking up after yourself at school may lessen the tension between students and staff.
Students can show their respect for the school by picking up, and the staff can return that respect by granting students deserved freedoms.
The issue affects more than just resources and the people who clean the school at night. All things considered, it may hold more relevance than Character Strong when it comes to the relationships between students and faculty.
