How did you choose your college? Did you like the sports? Or maybe it was the rigorous academics? Did the location seem nice? For many, the University of Oregon has resembled a school that cares about the environment. The Environment Initiative at the UO works to create a successful and safe future, fueled by the current threats of climate change and the need for environmental justice. In 2019, the UO president, Michael Schill released a new Climate Action Plan, outlining plans to reduce campus buildings’ energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, and it also produced funding for energy-efficient projects.

Sitting at #8, on the Best College Reviews ranking of the “25 Best Green Colleges,” you would think The University of Oregon is highly sustainable and doesn’t produce mounds of trash. However, this is not the case. In 2020, the UO produced 3,613 tons of waste, according to the UO Materials Tracking Report. To put that into perspective, 3,613 tons of waste is equal to 7,965,302 pounds of waste. Your average American consumer produces under 5 pounds of trash a day.

Although the UO did recycle 67.8 tons of glass, metal, and plastic, and compost 221.6 tons, our trash bins everywhere on campus are overflowing. Our dumpster bins are hidden from the public, behind the walls of residence halls on campus. From the outside eye, the UO looks very clean; we don’t have anthills of trash piling up on campus, our dining hall tables are clean, and our infamous sports stadiums remain spotless day-to-day.

As people who live on campus and see the overflowing dumpster bins weekly, my team and I are exposed to the paralyzing amount of trash produced by residence halls. To make matters worse, most people don’t know or care to learn about which recyclable goes into which bin. This can be seen by looking into any “designated disposal” zone on campus (no really, I’m challenging you.... go take a peek!).

Other universities across the country have made conscious efforts to reduce their trash production. For example, University of California, Berkeley only provides plastic water bottles upon request in the dining halls, and Lehigh University automatically provides students who have a meal plan with 2 reusable containers for their dining hall meals!

It seems like after something uses its value for its user, it simply becomes trash! But what we don’t see is where it goes, since our dumpster bins are just emptied for our refill. The World Wildlife Fund announced that researchers estimate that in a year, the production and incineration of plastic will pump more than 850 million tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere worldwide. By 2050, it could rise to 2.8 billion tons.

Not to mention- at least 8 million tons of discarded plastic enters our oceans annually, but that’s a story for another day.

So, after that global recap of why my team is so passionate about trash production, come meet us! Our group members are myself, Margo Cumming, Claire Stigen, Kirstin Saha, and Jacque Velasco, and we are all freshmen at the UO this year (2021-2022). Our group is called Trash Talk (I know, so punny), and we are a part of the Media and Social Action Academic Residential Community on campus. If you’d like to learn more about that you can head over to our Instagram.

That leads me into our goals as the Trash Talk group. We’re hoping to bring more awareness to the sheer amount of trash on campus, what we can do to minimize the numbers, and how to live more sustainably, especially as a residence-hall dweller! On the app Litterati, we have created a challenge on the UO campus. After you’ve downloaded the app, enter our challenge code, 402826, to participate. Each time you pick up a piece of trash, photograph it on the app, and in no time, you’ll be featured on our leaderboard! The winner at the end of Winter term will receive a sustainable prize or two... keep your eyes out!

Our Instagram, @uotrashtalk, will provide updates on our Litterati leaderboard, but also presents sustainable resources and ways to live more sustainably! Assuming you're already reading this on our website, @uotrashtalk.com, keep checking our pages to stay updated on what we have to say about campus trash production, and what to do about it.

We can’t wait to get involved and help amplify the UO campus Trash Talk. Hope to see you on Litterati, and on our Instagram too!