So, Earth Day passed. What did you do? Plant some trees? Embrace nature? Do nothing? Well, I spent my Earth Day thinking about the AHS campus, and how it is littered with trash. Every inch of the school seems to be covered with some litter, whether it is trays or sporks or even Chinese food boxes. Even when there is a trash can literally a couple of feet away, there is litter. And it really disgusts me.

I’m bothered by how people just don’t care. I see kids aim for the trash can like they’re Kobe Bryant, and when they don’t make it, they don’t even move to throw it in. Maybe I’m just getting upset over nothing, but it just screams laziness to me. People don’t care about keeping their school clean. And they don’t care about the several custodians who have to pick up after them. After lunch, there are thousands of trays just left out on the tables, which puts a burden on the custodians who have to pick up after them. And even the custodians can’t clean everything up, since there is still trash lying around the campus among the plants. They can’t carry the burden of cleaning up after the students alone.

Perhaps this issue is caused by the laissez-faire attitude Americans seem to have about littering and the Earth. You can call me a hippie or a Lisa Simpson, but I get so upset when I see people litter. Not only is it rude, but it is harmful to the planet. For instance, when plastic bags end up in the ocean, they can greatly harm animals like sea turtles who accidently ingest them. People seem to think that the Earth can take all of this damage, and don’t seem to care that their wasteful behavior is what is causing climate change and greatly damaging ecosystems. And although it is impossible to completely change how people affect the Earth, the least anyone can do is pick up after themselves and throw away trash.

Because of that, I’m calling on the school or maybe one of the clubs to actively endorse environmentalism. There should be a club that promotes picking up litter around the trash and actually does so. Perhaps the club could pick up trash during lunch. Or, if detention doesn’t already do so, people in detention should spend their time picking up litter around the school. These are just suggestions, but if the school takes them in mind and decides to further promote environmentalism, then AHS will end up looking much cleaner and will be much more eco-friendly.