UPCS 2019

Trash Assessment

This is the map of our school

This is the color-coded map of our school after doing two trash assessments.

Area Code Meanings

The green area code represents a clean surface with little to no trash.
The yellow area code represents a medium amount trash that only needs one person to clean up.
The red area code represents a highly littered area that needs multiple people to help clean up.

Evidence of windblown litter collecting in the corner of a wall and fence.

The Wind and Trash

The wind could be a factor on how the trash gets in other places because the wind can blow the trash anywhere on campus, usually on our campus the trash can also blow to different places on campus and, the trash gets stuck in the fence, sand, walls, or tall grass. Trash also is littered because, some people are not doing their part to keep our campus clean.

Why Some Areas Have More Trash Than Others

Some areas in our schools have more trash than others because,some areas are used more than others. For example the cafeteria is a place that is used all the time at our school, people are constantly eating there. Trash can also blow away and get stuck in other areas like the sand or tall grass, in all the areas the students eat the area is at least a B. We predict that the elementary school kids have more trash in their eating areas because they have only one place to eat, where as the middle schoolers have multiple places to eat not just the lunch tables which is contributing to more widespread litter.

"X" marks the spot. We surveyed our campus and discovered we have 18 trash cans on our campus.

Number of Trash Cans

We found that we only had one trash can in the field in between two trees, many middle school students eat on the field and do not have access to a trash can nearby. In total we have 18 trash cans in the entire school, we feel that this is contributing to the litter on our campus considering we have a middle school and elementary school put together. There is about 800 kids at our school and only 18 trash cans that is a ratio of about 44 kids to 1 trash can (44:1). Statistics show that if a trash can is close people will use it. If we add more trash cans, kids could throw trash away and not litter as much. Also we could do something fun with the trash cans and maybe make them more appealing to the human eye so kids throw the trash away.

Our Recommendations

We have many recommendations to reduce the trash on our campus. Some of the creative ideas our class has come up with include:

More trash cans around campus, especially where students eat.
A school-wide recycling program
A Green Team club
A video series which will film and produce commercials that will be aired on UPTV encouraging people to pick up their trash.
Adding an extra refill station closer to the middle school wings and have school logo reusable water bottles to encourage students to stop using disposable plastic bottles.

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