I know you’ve been at lunch and heard at least one of the custodians say something among the lines of “Pick up your trash”. You may have not thought of it to be that important at the moment. You may have not even done it. But this small action actually affects the custodian’s jobs a lot.

You may not think of how much the custodians do for the school when really, the school would look like my bedroom without them. Especially with lunch. From D lunch to 4th period, the custodians have a time of 30 minutes to clean the whole lunchroom before activity in the commons resumes. And when people don’t pick up their trash, it makes their job take longer and throw off the flow of the whole day. Take a look at the commons in the passing period between 3rd/7th period and advisory, you’ll see the tables out of the way, and a whole lot of trash. This is what the counselors have to work with in the span of 30 minutes before the next class starts.

Also, you should pick up your trash just because it’s the right thing to do for the greater good of society. Even if it’s not yours, Mrs. Alberta describes picking up trash as a team sport “If you’re sitting at the table with your friends, the trash becomes yours by association”. She says this is the way McCullough should teach their students in the lunchroom. “Everyone’s together, so it’s a community thing” Mrs. Alberta says. Which is true, because if you choose to sit with your friends, you become a community within a table. The systems that Mrs. Alberta presents to rid of this problem are 1. To all throw everything away as a community. Or 2. To have an assigned person every day to throw the trash away. Either way she says the custodians are not paid to clean up after the students. But to clean up for the school.

I believe that this topic is important for the school because I know people get annoyed when the custodians come over telling them to throw their trash away. But they do not know the actual reason why they care so much for it.