Students scurry from their cars into the school to start their classes. Between the conversations and laughter, they avert their gaze away from the blacktop of Junior and Senior Lots.
Old, half-eaten burgers sit inside soggy paper containers, covered in a cloak of coffee, spilling out of the trash cans and onto the asphalt. Not even the birds dare brave the stench that the trash emits.
To Colin Folsom ‘23, seeing trash on the ground is unacceptable. “There’s a lot of trash in the parking lot from lunchtime and people’s cars,” Folsom said. “It’s bad visually and for the environment.”
In the parking lots, trash can be found underneath cars, crunched near the curbs, and on the ground near the trash cans.
Folsom blames the apathy of students for the problem. “You can’t fix laziness,” he said. “We’re young adults. It’s not hard.”
After school, the custodians are busy cleaning the inside of the school. This means outside maintenance gets difficult.
“The school is divided into five areas: The gym, the main halls, and the academic wings,” a custodian who wished to remain anonymous said. “It takes about an hour to take out the trash, but it takes hours to clean each area.”
Folsom feels keeping the campus clean is a community effort that starts with the students. “Take the extra two seconds to find the trash can and put it where it goes,” he said. “We know better.”