Last Saturday night, I watched a few students stumble out of Lee to cut across the Rebert/Whitman Annex quad. One tossed and kicked a Gatorade bottle onto the ground. Perhaps 20 yards away, I called out not to litter, and was answered with muffled words. I called out again for him to pick it up, and again got a “don’t bother me” type response. The two friends I was with walked past the bottle, and I bent down to pick it up, not saying anything. The guys that had thrown the bottle down saw this, and proceeded to yell unkind things at my group, including “you damn hippy,” which I am guessing was not a compliment. We kept walking as the other guys tried to egg us on, so we responded with silence and any confrontation was avoided. But myself and the two friends I was with remained quiet, ruminating on the realization that there are still people at this university who think is okay to throw trash on the ground and call names at the people that give a damn about this place we call home. As I walked towards my house, every bottle and can that I saw seemed to gleam conspicuously under the walkway light’s glare.
By and large, I think St. Lawrence students deeply respect our home on this campus. However, last weekend I was shocked to find that there are actually students here that have such disregard for our campus environment as to pointedly throw trash on the ground. I am baffled that people do understand that plastic bottles and aluminum cans get recycled, not thrown out, and that it is in fact not acceptable to dispose of these items on the walkways and quads around campus. It is easy to get frustrated when we see students not composting and recycling (two of the easier ways to minimize our impact on the world) around campus. I used to let this bother me and often became discouraged about the environmental initiatives happening at St. Lawrence that never gained quite as much traction as those supporting them hoped they would. But my encounter last weekend reminded me why it is so important not to become discouraged. There are people here that need to be educated,
When I first arrived on campus, I was perturbed by the number of students that I felt did not demonstrate enough awareness about commonplace environmental issues. This bothered me. A lot. But what I have come to realize is that people who do not seem to care about our world are not bad, thoughtless people. More often than not, they simply do not know why they should care. More precisely, no one has bothered to explain and show them why. I think it is time that students here begin to engage in more meaningful and informed discussion. Granted, the later hours of Saturday night are probably not the time to explain why littering is bad. But stopping someone to show them what gets recycled where and what you can compost and what you can not is the beginning of the environmental discourse that needs to be taking place on our campus. It is important to note, however, that the discourse and engagement between students with different knowledge bases and experiences should not stop at the environment. The human relationship with the world is only one part of a larger discussion that must be had. We need to foster a campus culture where every student, not just the ones that are always giving the rallying cry (you all know who you are, and thank you) engage in discussion and debate. If there is one thing I have learned during my tenure at this liberal arts institution, it is that many of the issues being brought up on our campus today (gender equality, diversity in all of its facets, divestment, racism, sexual abuse, LGTBTQ rights, the list goes on) are inextricably interconnected. Let us not create greater divides with these issues, but rather bring people together to listen, learn, and make positive change. Oh, and pick up your trash.