Litter continues to add up at IU

Coffee, soda, water bottles, Styrofoam cups and newspapers hide under chairs, sit in the halls and clutter the campus long after their owners have left. Someone has to clean it up.  

IU’s campus trash is a problem, Campus Division Manager Mike Girvin said. Girvin oversees the lawn and parking-lot maintenance as well as mowing and trash cleanup around campus.

“It’s an ongoing job,” Girvin said. “The litter is almost ongoing.”

His crew is on campus cleaning at 7 a.m. every day.

“It’s frustrating because you would like to think people are environmentally aware, but it almost seems to be getting worse,” Girvin said.  

Battle of the bulging trash can

The amount of trash, especially around the residence halls, keeps Girvin’s crew busy throughout the day, too.

“Keeping the parking lots of residence halls such as Forest clean alone takes a lot of time,” Girvin said. “Along with the 200 acres in the Forest area that need mowed. Plus another two hours of litter cleanup ... It keeps us from doing other things.”  

If students were to put their trash in the trash cans, it would mean less time maintenance spends with litter cleanup.

“I bet we pick up 5,000 water bottles a day on the ground,” Girvin said. “If the campus looks trashy, people will be more likely to throw trash out. It doesn’t take much trash to make it look dirty.”

As senior Abby Snouffer waited in line at Ballantine Hall’s cafe, coffee cup in hand, she said she notices the trash cans as a problem outside and not a problem in the buildings.

“Mostly the trash cans aren’t empty and people put the trash on top,” Snouffer said. “Maybe there’s not enough trash cans or they don’t empty them enough.”

Increasing the number of trash cans around campus might help.  

“Some days they are packed full,” Girvin said. “We are working on getting more out around campus.”  

The trash cans around campus are emptied once a day, Girvin said.

Lost in the garbage

He said the most of the items they pick up are water bottles, food wrappers, soda cans, plastic bottles, Styrofoam carry-out containers and newspapers. His crew even pulls out stolen bikes from the pond in the IU Arboretum.

Girvin said that coats and other clothes found outside are turned into the Lost and Found main office in Ballantine Hall 031. If a cell phone or wallet is found it is turned in to the IU Police Department.

Junior Bailey Brand works in the Lost and Found main office. Down a short hallway in Ballantine, Brand sits surrounded by shelves filled with books, calculators, keys and miscellaneous items left by students in classrooms and around campus. 

“Everything you lose on campus ends up here,” Brand said.

From every academic building, library and trails around campus, the items left by students are brought to the main campus Lost and Found.

“We are supposed to keep things one month, but it sometimes ends up staying the whole semester.” 

Brand said flash drives are the most common item left in the classroom.

“We get tons of them ... We have an entire bookshelf,” Brand said. 

Brand said a lot come from lab classes. She also said they receive a lot of books and clothes, such as jackets, that students leave in the room and on campus.

“We are busy during the day,“ Brand said. “A lot of people come during the day or e-mail us.”

Cleaning day and night

Greg Fichter, assistant director for building services division, manages the division of custodial personnel for all IU academic buildings, both on-campus buildings and off-campus academic houses.

“Most custodians work at night, the third shift,” Fichter said. “There are limited workers during the day. Most rooms are booked with classes so no cleaning can be done.”

Fichter said the classrooms are cleaned Sunday night through Thursday night so they are cleaned by 7:30 a.m. before classes begin.

“Typically rooms look good in the morning,” Fichter said. “Anything that is left there by students stays there.”

Fichter said most items they pick up are newspapers, cups and other papers that students leave behind, despite the recycling cans and trash cans in the rooms and buildings.  

“I hope students pick up after themselves,” Fichter said.

But some students do pick up after themselves.

“We do have people that care,” Girvin said. “I see people pick up trash that isn’t theirs and put it in a trash can.”