Commentary: Community coming forward to address litter issue

By Cory Bilicko
Managing editor

In a June 20 commentary I wrote entitled “How a local middle school ‘distinguishes’ itself,” I expressed my frustration with living behind Hughes Middle School and the irony that a California Distinguished School that has won numerous awards for its environmental efforts would have so much litter present on and around its campus.
After that commentary was published, I received numerous phone calls and emails from individuals who also see the problem that I described. (The sole exception was a reader who was “very disappointed” in my commentary, which he called a “rant.” He criticized me for having someone take a picture of me holding the two bags of trash I’d collected off the street behind Hughes after the school’s graduation ceremony, and he wrote, “If you don’t like living near a school, it’s not too difficult to live elsewhere.” ) However, one woman, who lives in front of the school, called to tell me she and her neighbors are joining together to bring the issue to the school board.

Another reader wrote in and empathized with me, especially when it comes to people parking nearby and tossing “trash from the fast-food places out of their cars instead of taking it home and disposing of it in their trash.” Two of the fantastic adults affiliated with Hughes whom I’ve been meeting with as part of their committee to address the trash problem also wrote to me after the commentary published. One of them wrote, “You have been supportive and patient. Our committee will not give up.” The other wrote, “sad but true. I couldn’t believe how much trash was left on the playing field after graduation— and that was in the area where the adult spectators sat! We have our work cut out for us.”

I was happy to hear and read that others see it as a problem and that they, like I, are willing to do something about it.
Then, last Sunday, as I was just starting a run down Bixby Road, I jogged by a few pieces of new trash that had clearly been tossed onto the street or playground by the families who were at the school to watch their kids play little-league soccer, when I noticed a woman wearing gloves and sweeping up litter into a plastic bag. I stopped, removed my headphones and asked her, “Are you doing a clean-up?” She smiled and said, “Yes, we are.” She explained that she was part of a group of local residents who had organized a litter pick-up that day and that it was actually the idea of Evan, a kindergartener who didn’t like seeing the trash on the playground and wanted it cleaned up. I asked her if she was the same person who had called me, but she said no. So, here was yet another group of individuals who were seeing the trash and addressing it head-on. Great! I thanked her and asked her to tell everyone else in the group thanks, and then I continued on.

As soon as I was finished with my run, I rushed home, grabbed my phone and then went over to the playground to snap some shots of the clean-up crew, which consisted of about five adults and eight kids. I spoke to Evan’s dad, Kirk, who mentioned that he’d also read my commentary and said he agreed with me about the irony of the situation. He and Evan’s mom, Diane, gave me permission to talk to their young son about his motivation. I asked him why he organized this effort, and he said, “I was playing on this playground, and there was trash and potato-chip bags everywhere, and I didn’t want to play there.”
What I’ve learned the last few weeks is that, even though Hughes students do generate a substantial amount of trash and, unfortunately, not all of them are conscientious about disposing of it properly, despite some of the staff’s best efforts to educate them on the matter, the pollution issue is not one that is only attributable to those kids; it’s also one caused by the people who attend the soccer games on weekends. Every Sunday evening since the academic year ended, the Hughes playground and surrounding streets are full of trash. In a situation like this, in which folks drive from other neighborhoods to watch their kids play soccer, and leave their trash behind for the residents of the neighborhood surrounding Hughes, who is to be held accountable?

Even after Evan, his friends and his parents had spent at least an hour Sunday afternoon going around Hughes Middle School and Longfellow Elementary next door, picking up all the garbage they saw on the ground, once all the soccer families had left that evening and there were no signs of their cars or fold-up chairs, they still had left behind their chip bags, drink cups, fast-food remnants and even a soiled diaper.