A spare napkin, a tossed homework assignment, a half-eaten chocolate chip cookie, a beer can—I’ve seen all of these bits and pieces lying around campus within the past couple of days.
During the winter months, trash is a less visible entity with the amount of snow the Capital Region receives each year. In fact, whatever trash you throw on the ground is probably covered up in just a few seconds!
However, during the summer, trash becomes much more obvious, especially on the really nice days when all you want to see is a green, natural landscape, and instead, you see everything littered with nasty, ugly trash.
In the last few weeks of school, in the midst of exams and final projects, it is very easy to forget about keeping the campus clean. By leaving trash lying around campus, you are making the jobs of those who clean up here at RPI that much harder, and probably indirectly raising our tuition so that we might maintain a level of cleanliness that we can all deal with.
It’s not fun to be walking back to your dorm room after a long day of work and classes only to step on a stale cheeseburger as you open the door. Trust me.
Even if you are already throwing your trash away, you may not be taking full advantage of what’s available to you. Make sure to make use of the recyclying bins located all over the university’s grounds.
So, next time you think of throwing that can of soda on the grass, or even in the trash can, make a statement—recycle, and keep our campus clean.
Yes, it does take extra effort, especially with everything else going on this time of year, but you’ll feel much better when you don’t step on that cheeseburger.
