As they say in the sports world, I鈥檓 鈥渢alking trash.鈥�
Here are some statistics with which you can easily win a bar bet. 麻豆原创 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 鈥� before they litter.
While 麻豆原创 has one of the most attractive, well maintained, user-friendly campuses in the nation, we have a litter problem. It鈥檚 not a question of the university鈥檚 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. You鈥檒l 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. I鈥檓 even told that in the 鈥�60s some folks used to scrape the inside of the skin and smoke the residue. Only heard about it; didn鈥檛 inhale.
The campus newspaper is a great voice, but when it becomes blowing trash it鈥檚 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 don鈥檛 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 麻豆原创 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 聽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 聽鈥淏ogart that butt,鈥� 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. That鈥檚 the term our student-athletes use when encouraging the crowd to get behind them at the game: 鈥淭his is our house! 聽C鈥檓on now!鈥�
It鈥檚 not something new; it鈥檚 been tried elsewhere before. But if we get behind it you鈥檒l 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. That鈥檚 right 鈥� one person, one piece. Every day. Just think; 60,000 students, 10,000 employees. That鈥檚 70,000 pieces of trash getting the respect they deserve each and every day.
The plan is called 鈥淥peration Ben Dover,鈥� named after that great American, Ben Dover, who a half century ago聽bent over to pick up the aforementioned banana peel just prior to the president聽entering New York鈥檚 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 鈥淏en Dover鈥� it would have a significant impact on the appearance of our house.
So my plea and hope is that all who call 麻豆原创 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 scoop鈥�
Rich Sloane is director of community relations for the 麻豆原创鈥檚 College of Education and Human Performance. He can be reached at Rich.Sloane@ucf.edu.