Student Government took a trip outside for a parking lot trash pickup on Sept. 24th. They went through lots A, B, C, and staff parking with gloves and trash bags to pick up as much trash as possible. 

The next day, the lots were all trashed again. 

Garry Scott, director of facilities, shares that littering in the parking lots is “frequently an issue,” but that the problem is not being left unaddressed.

“During the school year, we have three grounds people that work on collecting the trash and the trash cans when they get full,” Scott said. “Fifteen people on campus will sweep through A and B and C lots and D lots to use tongs to pick up [trash] and drive through with an orange buggy and a golf cart to try to pick up as much as they can.” 

“All of the senators, me, and the Issues Committee proposed a bill that we pick up trash during our morning meetings,” Ava Kreiter, junior student government senator said. “I park in B lot and I notice that there is still a lot of trash.” 

Kreiter also says that the type of trash she finds is pretty consistent. 

“I see a lot of takeout containers and bottles,” she said.  

It seems as though trash is a much less significant issue in the staff parking lot, however. 

Piper Willis, sophomore, cleaned the staff parking lot. “It didn’t have a lot of trash to begin with,” Willis said.

It seems that much of this trash comes from the students. 

“You see it, the students who show up and have breakfast and they tend to drop it in the parking lot,” Scott said. 

However, not all of it comes from the EHS community. 

“It’s not just school related activities, it’s also on the weekends that we have a lot of outside groups, so it’s not just always related to the school, it’s community use as well,” Scott said.

Along with littering in the parking lot, there is also a lot of illegal dumping of trash in dumpsters. Illegal dumping is the disposal of trash without permission. Scott said that the dumping happens, especially on C lot and behind the track where there’s two dumpsters up there.

“I don’t like litter, I think it’s kind of gross to look at, and also bad for the environment,” Kreiter said. “I don’t want that to blow into our water or to Indian Brook. I wouldn’t like that, it would be bad.” 

Taking care of our EHS community is not that hard to do.

“It’s just kind of unpleasant, and not hard to pick up trash,” Kreiter said. “I feel like it’s very inconsiderate as well.”