As the countdown to the bell for fourth block begins, students start throwing their trash out or otherwise leaving. But they don’t always get everything in the garbage.

“I usually pick it up, I’ll stare at it for a few seconds,” sophomore Alia Stepney said. “I have to help the environment cause it’s a good thing, and I don’t wanna die early.”

Stepney might seem overly dramatic, but clutter is the reality of the current generation’s attitude. According to Keep America Beautiful Inc., in 2009, plastic litter on America’s roadways had increased by 165 percent over the last 50 years. It’s not always their fault, of course. If a rule isn’t enforced, then the rules won’t be followed.

“We don’t get on the kids for cleaning up much,” Alex Huck, student teacher for David Graham and Katherine Sasser’s World Studies class, said. “If people think it’s a big deal, I’m sure they’re going to clean-up.”

Although the rules of cleanliness aren’t enforced now, that doesn’t mean in the past they weren’t. Dr. Jim King, RBHS principal from 1992-1998 preferred to put cleanliness on the top of his priorities. King picked up trash in the main commons himself after every lunch period.
Every time he witnessed students miss the trash can or simply leave trash on the ground, Dr. King went to the offender, and nicely asked the student to pick it up himself.

“[The student’s reaction] depends on the student’s situation. Some would pick it up and say they were sorry,” King said. “Some would, once in awhile, very rarely mouth back that it was not their job or something.”

Regardless of any smart-aleck remarks he received, Dr. King was principal of the school and was determined to keep it clean. He put it simply: his abundance of pride for the building he worked in kept him bending over, retrieving the leftover food and putting it in the trash can, where it belongs.

“I felt that if we’d all have to work together, and if they saw me doing it,” King said, “Maybe it would encourage them to do it themselves.”

American rules of picking up after oneself, as Huck said, are no longer enforced. However, internationally the regulations are more implemented.

Sophomore Molly Vornholt spent three weeks in Japan in March as part of the program Kizuna involved with raising awareness on clean up of Japan after the tsunami, and says there’s a big difference between the cleanliness of America and Japan.

“They’re trying to have a clean society because a clean society is generally better. You get rid of the sickness in the air,” Vornholt said. “There’s a lot of pride to be taken in the fact that [Japan’s] streets are clean, and they don’t have a whole bunch of trash on them. [Japan is] not one of those societies who just throws things out the window and calls it good enough.”

After the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami two years ago, the people of Japan spent numerous hours cleaning up the devastation that they made.

Private companies are hiring those who have lost their jobs in the disaster to sort through the rubble.

“Just being there, the air seems a whole lot cleaner,” Vornholt said of Japan. “It’s not just the spring freshness that you usually have here in America, but it was like this all the time. It was really nice.”

The difference between Japan and America surprised Vornholt. On her watch, there were only two stray cups on the streets. Junior Piper Stretz, on the other hand, wasn’t expecting the shell-shock she received when starting work at Forum 8 Theater.

For a year, Stretz has been cleaning other peoples’ vomit, dirty diapers and spit cups, and from it has gained a new appreciation for the work employees do at any given place.

“I think it kind of shows that the public doesn’t really… take in consideration what the people there … do,” Stretz said. “They’ll totally take advantage [of] the fact that they will just go somewhere and they think they can just do whatever they want.”

While it seems to Stretz that people believe they can do anything they want, it is difficult to keep such big areas clean. Sometimes janitors can’t keep up with the trash, which Stepney always notices. Perhaps it’s the reason she prefers to pick up after herself instead of letting it sit out.

“My second hour – oh my Lord Jesus – the [poor] janitors, they don’t throw things away. [The janitors] just put everything on the back table that they find on the floor,” Stepney said. “Those kids are dirty as hell. My God … Come in with a trash can. Throw everything away.”
By Madi Mertz and Hope Smith