No Impact (the quad) By: Jennifer Kerr



cigarette butts near Flowers Hall.





More garbage, and cigarette butts just feet from the ramp leading down to the rest of the Quad.

These pictures were taken one afternoon in october. I was in the quad at about 5:30 or so, and no one else was really around. It was very pretty, the weather was great, and the sun was shining. I started walking around wondering what I should take pictures of. Then I started seeing garbage, and cigarette butts everywhere. I suddenly realized just what the janitorial staff had to deal with everyday. So I quickly started snapping pictures.

Key Questions

1. The best example of sustainable practices I saw were the garbage cans, and recycling bins placed in various locations throughout the quad.

2. The worst non-sustainable practices I observed were people just simply ignoring the garbage and recylcing bins, or being lazy. They didn't even bother to open the recycling bins, they just set their garbage on top of the lid. Also people repeatedly just throw their cigarette butts on the ground, or leave their garbage wherever it may fall. None of this really becomes apparent until you see the quad when it is virtually empty and the garbage is all over the place.

3. some long term solutions to this problem would be to try making people more aware of the amount of garbage that is there everyday. Let people see how much they are destroying the beauty of the campus around them. Also trying to enforce the NO SMOKING rules in the quad. This would not only help reduce the environmental impact, but it would also help improve the air quality and health of other students that breathe in the second hand smoke on a daily basis.

4. I would convince the students to implement more sustainable practices by showing them what they are leaving for others to clean up, and by showing them pictures of the quad early in the morning when it is clean, then showing them pictures later in the day when all the students have passed through it and wrecked it. It would be a kind of "before and after" picture. This would demonstrate how they are destroying their own home and campus, as well show the environmental impact it is having.