A successful Campus Cleanup

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Biology student Caitlin Gonter and Biology professor Rajinikanth Mohan, Ph.D., organized a campus cleanup event on Saturday, April 23, in celebration of Earth Day. This idea started as an extra credit opportunity in Gonter’s biochemistry class.

The task was to pick an idea that could be translated to a social change within the Mercyhurst or Erie community. Gonter chose to discuss littering and create a call to action that would be a trash cleanup event, which is exactly what she did.

Flyers were made and posted all around the Zurn building and posts were made on social media to advertise this event.

“Our campus is so beautiful and always filled with so much color and flowers that seeing trash just laying around amidst this beauty only degraded our reputation,” Gonter said when asked why she chose to host this event on campus.

Despite the cold and undesirable weather, a group of students showed their support and gathered in the Student Union to receive their assigned areas on campus to cleanup.

Divided into teams of two or three, the students set out to pick up any trash that was found in their designated areas.

Items such as cigarette butts, bottles, cans, plastic utensils and candy wrappers were among the common trash found.

The students were encouraged to keep count and categorize each item they collected into plastics, metals, glass, or other.

Gonter and Mohan also provided both regular trash bags and recycling bags so that participants could appropriately dispose of each piece of trash collected.

Participants were given a briefing on which items would be recyclable and of particular interest was in the plastics category.

In the state of Pennsylvania only plastic bottles, jars and jugs that are #1 and #2 can be recycled.

These numbers are resin identification codes that correlate to the types of plastics that Material Recover Facilities (MRFs) will accept in order to convert them into another usable form.

The claim as to the exclusion of plastics #3 through #7 is that plastic markets are looking for better quality plastic which they do not deem to be in these categories.

Reducing pollution is imperative for the environment’s health as well as for human health. Creating a space that is free of pollutants allows students and faculty to enjoy the fresh air and observe the beauty in nature that is embedded within the Mercyhurst Campus.

Additionally, ensuring that grass areas are free of trash helps preserve nature resources and keep the soil, and all the things living in it, healthy.

This becomes an attractive site for animals to make their home, which will increase biodiversity around campus and in the surrounding Erie community.

Cleaning up trash is not solely to make the environment look better, it really does create a healthy habitat for all living creatures.

Gonter provides her closing remarks about this event, saying “sustainability is not just something to recognize on days that have a label (Earth Day for example), but instead, every day. Sustainability is what’s going to allow our community to continue to grow in the future”.