Don’t Be a Litter Bug

Littering has always been an issue – people tossing things out of their car, missing the trash can, or just dropping their trash whenever they’re done with it.

Some think, “Oh, it’s just a small piece of trash, it can’t do any harm,” but it does. Even if it is just a tiny piece of trash, those tiny pieces add up, and soon there’s litter everywhere, just sitting to rot.

Roughly 50 billion pieces of litter sit along the sides of US waterways and roadways combined. This adds up to about 2,000 items of litter per mile, and about 152 pieces of trash per resident.

Now, when I’m talking about trash, I don’t just mean plastic bottles or candy wrappers; I mean food scraps, drinks, tiny things like cigarette butts. Anything that isn’t natural to that specific location is litter and harms the environment.

Yes, even your dirt-grown, all-natural orange peel is litter if it’s not naturally grown in that area.

So far in my time at Hutchinson Community College, I haven’t seen much trash along campus, which is wonderful, but every now and again, I’ll find an empty water bottle along the sidewalks, or empty pudding cups by the entrance of JFK Library. I’m not saying everyone’s perfect, sometimes trash can fall out of pockets or bags without you noticing, but there are still those who choose to throw their trash on the ground, rather than waiting to find a bin. That’s where this issue truly stems from.

I believe that we students are able to help with the littering issue, not just on campus but around the city of Hutchinson as well. This can start by being more mindful of where you drop your trash, and if you see a piece of litter on the ground, maybe go out of your way to pick it up.

I know that helping keep trash off the ground can seem like a big feat, especially if it feels like you’re the only person trying to make a difference. I know, I’ve been there, but you have to get past that. Even just picking up one piece a day can help, maybe not on the scale of millions per year, but it’s always better to do something rather than nothing.

Cathlyna Theriot is a Hutchinson freshman studying Medicine. Contact her on Instagram @th3riotnix

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