We see that it's here, but do we care?

Wake up. Get out of bed. Devote this day to observation. Look around you. What do you see and how do you feel about it?

I see a sidewalk riddled with cigarette butts. I smell smoke in the air. I taste the paste of humidity. And, just standing outside my dorm room I notice scattered soda cans and beer bottles that twist around with the leaves. I can just imagine the night that ended with those empties. By envisioning the state that these few friends most likely were in, I see that they must have been enjoying themselves and feeling funky. I don't like to litter. I do understand, however, that these boozing buddies were nowhere near a recycling bin. On an even stranger note, the nearest garbage can would have been a five minute walk, and we all know that if you're a student walking any lengthy amount of distance with a handful of empties, people are going to think you're up to something funky.

So in this certain situation, the riddle of litter that I spotted must have spawned from the initial fear of getting busted. It was the fear of authority crashing down on their inhibition to do what is right for the environment. On the same note, it was the authority that did not properly place garbage and recycling bins on the Purchase Campus. There are a slim 3 garbage cans in the quad. Three cans for four buildings flooded with lazy, hungry and hurried students that are doing their best to digest the polluted beauty that is, Purchase College.

Now, don't get me wrong, I love this school. The people here are great. So many of us here have a drive towards making a difference. On a nice day, you can find hundreds of students making friends and memories under the heat of the sun. People chatting it up. Hippy jam sessions. Circles of people sitting on the grass puffing intellect into the air around them. You can smell the good times that roll around this campus.

All around the quad, you can see it. Garbage. Why? Maybe because there are hundreds of hungry and hurried college students living in a consumer world wrapped up in paper or plastic that are all trying to find a place to throw their garbage away. That brings a problem. There are only three garbage cans in the quad. There is something funky about that.