It seems that during the long stretches at Foothill Technology High School (Foothill Tech) when there’s nothing particularly exciting and students are simply getting through classes while thinking about the weekend, nutrition and lunch are just small moments where you can cut loose and not worry about anything for a change. These students may go to their favored spot in the quad, eat, talk with their friends about whatever random topic has surfaced and then go back to class when the all-too-quick period ends, all without remembering the most important thing. As they blindly go through these motions, whether they realize it or not, it is a shock if they don’t leave behind piles of what has been the bane of campuses everywhere: trash.
That seems to be how trash spreads — people are not paying attention, and then, BANG, it strikes. Because of this, some may write it off as a mere inconvenience, or even inconsequential, and there, they would be astronomically far off.
At Foothill Tech, there are dozens of strategically placed trash cans, all nicely labeled, with many even using pictures to show what goes where. Somehow, for some Dragons, this remains too hard of a concept to grasp. These people walk past the shiny blue recycling bins with their trash left to blow around campus, putting the pressure on others to pick it up. On any given day, it’s not hard to spy a careening wrapper, a sliding milk carton or lonely food waste. The result? Students at Foothill Tech are actively detracting from the school environment, image and sanitation of Foothill Tech by their inaction.
But don’t think for a moment that nobody is picking up after you. Upon looking at the state of our campus, Head Custodian Todd Walker, Vice Principal Davis and all the rest of our good-natured staff have to painstakingly spend their time managing the problem others make. Just from some students’ inability to make the four second trip to the trash can, half our staff must suddenly drop everything to save the school’s reputation. While trash is thus destroying Foothill Tech on all fronts, what if I were to tell you that failing to throw away trash threatens the entire planet as well?
Yes, this selfishness affects the world beyond Foothill Tech, which, I understand, is a hard thing to grasp. If not properly disposed of, un-decomposable, dangerous and what could be recyclable garbage could be taken by wind, rain or sheer misfortune into sewers, drainage or nearby barrancas, where it will inevitably end up in the ocean. There it would join the other 5.25 trillion pieces, assisting in the death of roughly 100,000 to 1 million marine animals from waste pollution alone. This further threatens contamination of Ventura’s beaches, and that’s our city’s money maker people!
In short, the epidemic of those who would rather assist in the destruction of our oceans, overwork staff and damage Foothill Tech instead of throwing away a cardboard container or two is rampant and must be stomped out immediately. When put like this, how could you think any differently? Next time you see someone fail to throw something away, speak up and remind them of the near-cataclysmic harm they are helping cause. Though it is a great sacrifice, it is our great and moral responsibility to make the effort to drop our plastic in the right bin. Only once all of the Dragons come together to truly understand the danger of trash can we destroy this plague forever.
