Memories of The Solar Trash Compactor

Why would they ruin it? I can't figure it out. For those of you who have yet to witness for yourselves what I am talking about I will elaborate. A little less than 1 year ago a renovation of a green sitting area behind Edwards on the corner of Calhoun was completed. I was extremely excited when it was completed. There is a daycare center in the corner building of Edwards that directly overlook the outdoor sitting area. It was a positive clean addition to the community not to mention it relayed a positive message to the small children exposed to it every day. I myself feel children, if raised on certain images and aspects of environmental norms, will grow up to expect those things as normal and try to reproduce it. Say for instance if a child grows up in a bad neighborhood and is constantly exposed to litter that they just grow up thinking it is normal to see trash on the ground and they themselves may even litter someday. One of the crowning structures in this outdoor area was the solar powered trash compactor. What an absolutely fabulous idea! I am not saying that we need these around every corner; however if you are expecting an area to be a high traffic area and in anticipation of people in the area producing a lot of trash then yes I do think it is a great idea. I stopped and carefully studied the object the first time I wandered passed it and as I walked on I left with a smile on my face with the thought that "Well, this is a step in the right direction".

Then I walked through the green once again only about 3 days ago only to find the solar powered trash compactor destroyed. Inspecting the area more closely it looks as though the compactor was blown up. I'm not sure what exactly happened here but it is hurtful to think that someone just mindlessly destroyed this extraordinary piece of public property. I really want people to reflect on that word "public". That trash compactor was for everyone just like the green around it, the benches, parks, and sidewalks. When people just mindlessly deface, destroy litter and abuse these public pieces they are taking away from other people. They are hurting themselves too. Something tells me that trash compactor wasn't cheap and that was the tax money of everyone that went into paying for it including whomever destroyed it.

We should all try to think in the terms that when you are a part of a community whether that be the community you live in, work in, or frequent in anyway you are a part of a family. I had complained to my Dad once when I was younger about always having to do chores daily and never receiving an allowance like my peers. My dad told me that when you are a part of a family you share in the responsibilities and you share the rewards. The responsibilities were things like doing the dishes, the bathroom, and dusting. The rewards were things like when we go on vacation together, too the movies, or even out for dinner. If we take care of our community there will develop a natural instinct not to ruin it and our reward will be a nicer place to be.

A Thin Line Perhaps?

Today if you bring your attention to Mews Gardens, located directly behind the Subway on west campus you may find it looks slightly different then before. A common eating and lounging area it has a wide array of outdoor seating options. As I glanced out the window of Steger Student life center today I let out a slight chuckle and pointed out to my friend a desk chair, that was most likely taken from the student life center, was sitting high on top a decorative ionic column that supports nothing other than the sky, and sits in the center of the gardens. Good for a laugh I simply pushed the experience to the back of my mind and continued on with my day. A few hours later I passed the gardens again only this time from the outside. I saw the chair still in place and thought to myself I should take it down before it rains. I stood beneath the column and realized that I must be at least a foot shorter than the person who put the chair there in the first place. Accepting that I would be unable to retrieve the chair I informed a maintenance person of the chair and continued on with my day.

I realize that the chair being in an unsuspected spot was humorous. As I mentioned before it did make me laugh; however the action was overall thoughtless and inconsiderate. It is a perfectly good chair that will be ruined if our predicted rain happens to appear so lets add wasteful to the list. I got to wondering how often all of these things result from humor.

This past weekend was the first organized event of the litter cleanup program my friend and I created known as Clean Clifton. To gather up involvement, I overcame my anxiety and forced myself to speak to three classes about the event. Overall I spoke to over 100 students about the event. My friend also took it upon himself to present the idea to several people. Though in the end our attendance totaled only 4 people. While we were digging for trash in the wooded area we came upon several gems. My personal favorite was a fire extinguisher I pulled out of the rubble that expired in April of 1997. Alan found an old bed frame to which we were able to see but could not retrieve the mattress. It was astounding that even with our 9 bags filled with litter that was left on the ground simply due to carelessness and thoughtlessness that we found all of these extremely large items that obviously did not belong in the woods. I wondered if any of those items started out in the name of humor. Someone thought it would be funny if they took a fire extinguisher out into the woods just to see how it works, or someone decided they would take an old bed into the woods only to lounge in it for a couple of hours and then abandon it.

By the end of the day we made a monument of some of the oversized trash placed closer to the road instead of deep in the wooded areas in hopes that maybe the appropriate government workers would see it and make sure of its proper disposal. After these thoughts I simply want to be sure that the next time I feel that natural craving to spread humor that it won't lead to my thoughtlessness in the future.