As they say in the sports world, Iβm βtalking trash.β
Here are some statistics with which you can easily win a bar bet. ΒιΆΉΣ³»΄«Γ½ generates 2,342 tons of solid waste annually that is sent to the landfill. On average, each of us generates about 4.5 pounds of solid waste per day.
And perhaps most importantly, people hold a piece of trash 12 paces β before they litter.
While ΒιΆΉΣ³»΄«Γ½ has one of the most attractive, well maintained, user-friendly campuses in the nation, we have a litter problem. Itβs not a question of the universityβs Facilities Operations and Landscape and Natural Resources departments; they do a fantastic job of keeping the grounds and buildings in tip-top shape, inside and out. Youβll find the staff constantly cruising the campus with barrels and bags, picker-uppers and brooms, mops and all manner of implements, gathering wayward newsprint, candy wrappers, soda cans and on Monday mornings the occasional adult beverage container.
What we have here is a case of neglect. Too many people neglect to pick up after themselves. It always baffles me as to who would set down a banana peel on the ledge of the stairwell in a parking garage. I mean, I love bananas. Iβm even told that in the β60s some folks used to scrape the inside of the skin and smoke the residue. Only heard about it; didnβt inhale.
The campus newspaper is a great voice, but when it becomes blowing trash itβs just that, blowing trash.
And Styrofoam cups left half full of suspicious brown liquid? I mean, come on folks; either drink up or put up. Put up in the can, that is. And donβt get me started on gum. Did you ever notice the little black spots on the concrete throughout the campus, the remnants of chewing gum that lost its flavor on the deck instead of the bedpost overnight?
The fact that ΒιΆΉΣ³»΄«Γ½ is a smoke-free campus constitutes two steps in the right direction. First, because of the health issues inherent in smoking. Secondly, because cigarette butts were about to be classified as the 11th Β plague of the ancients prior to the upsurge in anti-smoking policies. As someone who once emptied his car ashtray on the ground in any convenient parking lot, today I speak with clarity on the matter of those who Β βBogart that butt,β having given up the vice some time ago.
All of this leads me to my grand plan for transforming the way we keep our house. Thatβs the term our student-athletes use when encouraging the crowd to get behind them at the game: βThis is our house! Β Cβmon now!β
Itβs not something new; itβs been tried elsewhere before. But if we get behind it youβll see a difference.
In a nutshell, the plan is to have everyone on campus bend over and pick up one piece of wayward trash every day. Thatβs right β one person, one piece. Every day. Just think; 60,000 students, 10,000 employees. Thatβs 70,000 pieces of trash getting the respect they deserve each and every day.
The plan is called βOperation Ben Dover,β named after that great American, Ben Dover, who a half century agoΒ bent over to pick up the aforementioned banana peel just prior to the presidentΒ entering New Yorkβs Waldorf Astoria Hotel, and thus averting what might have been a serious presidential slip. Now 70,000 people are not on the campus every day, but a sizable number are. And if each did his or her part and would βBen Doverβ it would have a significant impact on the appearance of our house.
So my plea and hope is that all who call ΒιΆΉΣ³»΄«Γ½ home will bend over each day and scoop up (at least) one piece of trash and put it in its rightful place. The exercise benefits alone warrant the effort
All together now, on the count of three: Bend and stoop, and bend and scoopβ¦
Rich Sloane is director of community relations for the ΒιΆΉΣ³»΄«Γ½βs College of Education and Human Performance. He can be reached at Rich.Sloane@ucf.edu.