Lunch Trash: You Can Do Better

Lunch+Trash%3A+You+Can+Do+Better

Phaedrus Taylor, Writer

Real Talk. I must vent about something that has increasingly grated on my nerves. That is, I just can’t go to lunch anymore without losing my appetite because of the amount of trash left behind by the previous lunch.

I have a little seat I go to when lunch begins. I am aware that teenagers are not the cleanliest of eaters, but when you sit on a styrofoam plate covered in ketchup, that’s when you know YOU DONE MESSED UP!

People, we are teenagers… we are stereotypically unkept and wild, but when you ruin a kid’s day with ketchup pants or you leave full plates covered in old chicken fingers on the seats, you know. YOU JUST KNOW.

I hate that I even have to write about this to you, my colleagues and fellow students. But how can I refer to the perpetrators of this offense as “colleagues and fellow students” when they behave like animals?

You all are aware of the janitors. You see them around, doing their work. You know they do their jobs well. Do you like making it harder on these people…? Nah, of course not. Probably something else entirely. Probably something along the lines of “I’m too lazy to do anything beyond consume and discard.”

The next person who comes across your discarded food-plate is the one who’s forced to stare at its remains. I don’t want to know that you barely touched your mustard-drenched burger. I don’t want to know that you like tearing your styrofoam ice-cream cup to bits with your teeth.

So, in response to this, I’m going to do something about it. A little something anyway. I am tired of this trash clogging up a place that’s supposed to be my eating area. I’m going to clean up the trash that collects around the area where I choose to eat. I will no longer ignore the remains of your food. I am done with letting my area become a landfill. I am done “leaving it for the janitors.”

You can do better, and so can I.