Trashing Helmick

Drake's Environmental Action League (DEAL) is putting on Earth Week this week. Everyday there will be activities celebrating the planet and whatnot.

Today we trashed Helmick Commons. All of the garbage from the first-year halls from over the weekend was collected and then sorted through to find all recyclable items just to show how much we end up throwing away that can actually be recycled or otherwise reused. It was incredible how much we ended up pulling out. It was kind of gross at first, but I got over it and kind of enjoyed it after a while.

It's kind of fun going through some people's garbage, let me tell ya. We found all sorts of stuff that people just chucked. I found a perfectly good copy of a Bill Bryson book, countless textbooks, clothes, tons of plastic Easter eggs, binders, a whole six-pack of Coke, some really nice decorative boxes and loads of other stuff. I was tempted to take some things but had to remind myself that all of it was sitting in the garbage. As Jerry Seinfeld would say, "adjacent to refuse is refuse." So, I restrained myself.

I probably could have stolen seven different identities today with all the voided checks, credit card bills and whatnot that we found. People really need to make sure they shred that stuff. I mean it's really easy to just rip open a bag of garbage and go through it to find stuff like that.

Plus, it's cool to see what people have been up to. You can tell a lot about a group of people by the garbage they chuck. Each bag was labeled with the hall and the floor that it came from.... huh... interesting...

But, back to the point.... The residence halls have recycling programs. I'm not sure how it works everywhere else, but I know in my hall all you have to do is put your recyclables outside your door at 10pm on Sunday and people come around and pick it up for you. It's as simple as that. I'm sure all the people who throw out the recyclable items care about the environment; they're just too lazy to take the time to put their can in a different bin.