Today I want to write about  my experience of visiting the SUB to grab some lunch earlier this afternoon.

Whenever I hear that my generation is more concerned about the environment than my parent’s generation, it gives me hope.  This is because as our  purchasing power increases, we will make more decisions to purchase environmental products until one day only sustainable products will be available.

But today when I was in the basement of the SUB, surrounded by those who I thought were similar-minded to myself, I learned that I’ve been generalizing too much about my peers.  I believed that I could count on my peers to continue this green wave into our futures, but what I saw shocked me and also saddened me.  All 4 of the garbage cans I saw were overflowing with waste that could have easily been tossed into the compost bin or into the recycling bin.  Trays from the Pit Burger Bar (compostable) were about to spill out while others were balanced precariously on top of the trash can.  Plastic packaging from the sushi joint (recyclable) were squeezed into the garbage can as though the challenge was to see how much the garbage can could handle before giving up altogether.

No one seemed to know or care that no more than 20 steps away was a station where they could toss their compostable and recyclable waste away.  What makes it worse is that there are these little stickers on the garbage can that say “Can that be kept out the landfill?”  It frustrates me endlessly when this type of ignorance exists.  I don’t know if it’s just a case of people not knowing that they could compost/recycle their waste or if they knew, but just didn’t care.  I really, really hope that the first one is the case.