Students sitting in the back of 104 Thomas Building for afternoon classes last week were treated to the overpowering odor of someone's oniony hoagie. The aroma was emanating from a nearby trash can where it was tossed atop the remnants of a salad and a deep-fried unidentifiable object.
The garbage can could and should have been filled with the rest of the trash that was littered around the room's floor -- candy wrappers, water and soda bottles, open beverage cups and newspapers.
Outside 104's door, a sign states "No Food, Drinks, Chewing Tobacco Allowed in Room."
The amount of food garbage and paper trash in University Park's general classrooms has prompted the University Committee on Instructional Facilities to explore a University-wide policy prohibiting food in classrooms, according to Bob Myrick, facilities, resources and planning architect for the committee. As it is, signs prohibiting food in the classrooms are being posted outside classroom doors every time the Office of Physical Plant does classroom renovations. Each classroom has at least one and sometimes several trash and recycling receptacles for proper disposals. Common areas and hallways also have appropriate waste disposal receptacles all clearly labeled and clearly visible.
Across University Park, classroom trash and litter is growing, especially in the larger "general" classrooms and auditoriums. "Cleaning is an issue," Myrick acknowledged. "I get calls from Area Service people that the rooms are really dirty. Other people like the technical support people and computer people complain, too."
How bad is it? Myrick has seen lettuce, chips and cupcakes ground into the floor. "It's pretty bad," he said. "It seems like there's a tremendous amount of food garbage and drink containers left behind in classrooms. That's what we're concentrating on at this point because it is the most difficult to clean up. "
Sophomore Emily Angle was licking an ice cream cone last week in her classroom seat in the Forum Building. She acknowledged that plenty of students eat in class and that not all of them clean up after themselves. "I think people leave stuff behind," she said. "I see a lot of coffee cups and newspapers."
University Park has two kinds of classrooms -- general purpose and departmental. General purpose classrooms are rooms where a variety of classes meet -- like the Forum Building auditoriums or all the first- and second-floor classrooms including 100 through 104 Thomas Building. Departmental classrooms are used for specialized instruction within a college or department. The 368 general purpose classrooms are cleaned five days a week because of the high usage; the departmental rooms are cleaned once a week, according to Greg Andersen, manager of Area Services who oversees custodial operations.
The general classrooms must be cleaned nightly because "there's an awful lot of trash in them," he said. "The classrooms would not be in suitable condition for the next day's classes. The trash volume is heavy enough if we're not doing this on a daily basis, the conditions would be objectionable. Some of the rooms can be pretty bad toward the end of the day."
Not only that, but cleaning these areas is difficult, tedious and time consuming, especially in the tiered auditoriums where the custodial staff has to get down on their hands and knees to clean the debris lodged in and around each of the seats. Spilled drinks and greasy potato chips ground into carpet are especially time consuming to clean up.
It takes the equivalent of 26 full-time employees working five days a week to keep the general classrooms clean, according to Andersen. Based on works schedules, on average about 36 minutes is scheduled per classroom for those nightly cleanings. Andersen estimated that it costs the University $690,000 annually to keep the general classrooms clean.
In fall 2004, the Office of Physical Plant worked with student representatives during their WE ARE campaign, which was designed to raise student awareness of litter in the general classrooms. During that period, Andersen said a very limited study was conducted to estimate the time it takes to pick up that trash. Based on that study, he estimates it takes an average of six to 12 minutes per room to pick up the trash. "Picking up the trash takes time away from cleaning tasks that we wanted them to do," Andersen said.
According to Al Matyasovsky, supervisor of labor and equipment for the Office of Physical Plant, the University doesn't keep figures on how many tons of classroom litter the University produces annually, but he said it was a significant amount.
Matyasovksy noted that newspaper waste costs the University money and that simply tossing a used newspaper into the recycling can instead of the trash can goes a long way to alleviating the problem. It costs the University $66 a ton in tipping fees to dispose of a ton of trash. A ton of newspapers can be recycled for $10, he said. "It would be very helpful if our students would clean up and take the stuff out, put it in the proper receptacles," he said.
So, what is the solution? Myrick and Andersen say the solution lies in individual responsibility. "It does not seem like there's a care or citizenship being expressed in common respect for each other or the space," Myrick said. "At the end of a class an instructor also could simply indicate to the students to please be responsible for their environment and take their trash to the appropriate waste receptacle."
The Office of Physical Plant is trying to raise awareness about the problem with a pilot program in Thomas Building, Matyasovksy said. Posters showing trash and recycling containers telling students to "Take Your Best Shot," "Watch Your Waste" and "Feed Us" have been paired up with trash receptacles in classrooms and common areas. If the posters raise awareness, more will be put up campuswide.
"Well I think part of the solution would be the students have to be responsible for their own litter," Andersen said. "That's probably where it starts. Student groups have made attempts to raise awareness. We've worked with USG on awareness campaigns for litter in the classroom. First and foremost it begins with the individual. If you brought the items in you have a responsibility to dispose of them properly."
For photos of classroom litter, see http://live.psu.edu/still_life/2006_03_29_trash/index.html