Tailgating Service Outreach- Stephen Foernsler

On Saturday November 9th before the football game against Missouri, me, Richard, David, Nate, and Will did our recycling outreach with tailgaters. We went out to multiple tailgating areas to talk with people and encourage them to recycle. We had buttons to hand out, cheat sheets telling what could and could not be recycled, trash bags, and recycling bags for people to take for their tailgates. We went to multiple tailgates in Myers Quad and the surrounding area since it is such a heavy concentration of people. We would go up and alternate who gave our talk advocating for recycling, and we would give them the tools needed to become more recycling conscious tailgaters. Everyone seemed to be very receptive of what we had to say to them as well as appreciative to have people going out and helping others to be aware.

One thing I noticed that made me happy was the amount of people with recycling already. The school gives out many recycling and garbage bins for game days that many people tailgating had right next to their tailgate in order to be environmentally conscious. The people who did not have their own recycling who we talked to were very accepting of it and glad to do their part. I feel that one of the most helpful items we handed out besides the actual recycling bags was the cheat sheet. Often people do not always know what exactly can or cannot be recycled when it comes to certain items, so our sheets were able to clear up some confusion and help with the recycling process. Even though someone has a recycling bag, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they will recycle. That is why is was important to provide a bit more education and encourage people to be very recycle conscious while tailgating.

One thing that we could have improved upon was helping people follow through with their recycling. Once we went we couldn’t be sure that they would follow our advice, so maybe next time we could have a little longer talk or set up their bag for them in a central place to be seen. This project definitely made me more personally recycling conscious especially with tailgating. It is very easy to toss something in the trash without realizing it instead of recycling, and I see how I must focus on where things belong. The greatest part of this was the actual feedback we would get fro the people we talked to. No one was opposed to recycling or turned us away, and everyone was kind and seemed to want to be as environmentally conscious as possible. The more people that we can reach on campus in the future, the better we can make the campus and our recycling as a whole.

Rivers Alive Service Outreach

Lauren Rose Wilkes Rivers Alive Service Outreach

At Rivers Alive, I spent three hours going to a local watershed and picking up trash around the area. We were given gloves, trash bags, and grabbers to clean up the MLK greenway. At the entire event, I would guess there were around 100 people, and there were probably 20 people at my specific location. I expected there would be a significant number of people there, and I expected there would be a little bit of trash around to pick up.
My expectations were both exceeded and not met. Overall, the experience was pretty harrowing. I was pleasantly surprised by how many people were there. I was expecting only around 25, but there were at least a hundred people there to pick up trash. This was definitely encouraging to see that so many people cared about the environment. I was especially excited that so many people cared enough to come volunteer on a Saturday. I was not pleasantly surprised by how much trash there was around. Especially because it was a relatively empty greenway, I was astounded by how much trash was there. I even found a water bottle full of pee that someone had left by the side of the highway. I could not believe people would so willingly litter by this waterway. There was trash both by the highway and lower into the waterway. This angered me as well because it seemed that people really had no regard for the nature around them and littered without even thinking about it.
This experience was very informative. Although I have volunteered for similar experiences in the past, volunteering after learning specifically about waterways really contextualized the problem. This pollution affects not only the immediate surroundings, but it can also have significant impacts later on down the line in other ecosystems connected to this waterway. Learning about this in class made the problem seem that much more serious and therefore made the service seem that much more important. From this experience, I learned a little bit more about what skills it will require to organize and participate in one of these service trips in the future. I lacked the knowledge on exactly what to pick up as well as the logistics on what exactly was important to watch out for and pay attention to. What I learned from this only proved how important it is to pay attention to littering, especially around greenways. Seeing how much trash there was only re-emphasized my previous ideas.
Because of this experience, I will try to actively participate in more service activities like this. I will also try to advocate for less littering overall. I will also monitor my habits and try to influence those around me to ensure that they know the harm that comes from littering. These just showed me how much people do not take littering seriously. The diversity of trash I found in that waterway proved that it is all types of people contributing to this pollution, and thus cannot be solved simply by holding industries accountable, but only by holding everyone accountable. In the future, I will use what I learned from this experience to participate in more rivers alive projects. In addition, I will attempt to spread the message about this issue. I can also apply this to other classes like my FYOS, which focuses on watersheds in Georgia.

River Clean Up Reflection- Hyde Healy

The Rivers Alive clean up was a rewarding and fun experience. A large group of us walked up and down the Oconee River picking up everything from plastic bottles to plastic tires. Everyone had the same role: pick up any trash you see and add it to the various piles that accumulated on the side of the path.

I enjoyed the experience quite a lot. Although sometimes the labor was strenuous, especially picking up the heavier objects like tires and old TV sets, seeing the area near the river gradually grow cleaner and cleaner was well worth it.

I applied organization and clean up skills I learned from being heavily involved in my high school’s Key Club.

As a result of this experience, I will make a conscious effort to litter less and pick up litter when I see it. I learned that more people need to care about this beautiful town we call Athens and not actively aid in its degradation. Keep Athens Beautiful #KAB

Climate Simulation Reflection- Hyde Healy

When I played my role in the policy exercise, I felt excited yet anxious. Since my usual daily decisions include where to eat or when to study, the task of deciding the most effective way to cut emissions and fight climate change intimated me. As the exercise progressed, however, I felt empowered and satisfied.

As a member of the developed nations, I initially had a close minded view during negotiations. I assumed since our countries were pledging lots of funds because already have things like stable government, widely-accessible clean water and food, and healthy economies that other countries should too. At first, I did not like hearing that other, less fortunate countries were not pledging nearly as much and actually needed money from us. After listening to their representatives, however, I understood that they simply did not have the resources to pledge.

Our group changed our ideas when we decided to pledge more money to the developing nations. Their representatives pleaded with us in a logical, level-headed manner and assured us the pledged resources would not only help their nations but help the entire world by allowing the developing nations to cut back on emissions.

The representatives of the developing nations approaching us in a calm manner to ask for donations prompted this change. Their well thought-out, cohesive explanation of where the money would go and how it would be used to fight climate change ultimately made my group change our minds.

Yes, I believe emissions can be cut once enough people/nations realize they must put the greater good of the world ahead of the greater good of their nation. The world is in a classic prisoner’s dilemma, but they can escape this problem with proper coordination. If the nations assure each other that everyone will contribute their fair share and no one will be put at a serious economic disadvantage by agreeing to fight climate change, then real change can be achieved.

The biggest barrier was selfishness. Nations did not want to pledge too much in fear that they would economically fall behind the rest of the world. You could tell, especially in the beginning, that most groups were looking our for themselves first and the world second. While this is a very natural and human way to negotiate, all nations must work to change.

We can catalyze change in the U.S. by placing laws on oil companies and big corporations that limit emissions. While small, individual changes like abstaining from plastic straws or using less water are somewhat helpful and well-intentioned, the biggest changes will come from limiting massive companies.

Project Reflection – Chase Ghannam

Trash coming from a small 10 square foot section in the woods behind apartments and next to a fraternity house.

Joshua Baker and I volunteered at the Carriage Lane site for the Rivers Alive Outreach. We took part in a trash clean-up. Carriage Lane is between the Clarke Garden apartments and the Woodlands of Athens. It is also next to the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house. Consequently, Joshua and I discovered plenty of litter ranging from empty bags of Doritos to the more prevalent beer bottle and beer can. The Carriage Lane section that I was apart of was further broken up into several teams. We were originally going to be assigned a specific part of the road by the discretion of the leaders, but Joshua and I asked if we could clean up a specific spot. It was in the trees next to the garbage containers and the closest spot to the fraternity house. As a result, there was a lot of trash to clean up.
The location we cleaned up was right next to the garbage container, so I assumed that people would just walk a few feet to that box to discard their waste. However, I was surprised to find out that this area had the most litter not only in its immediate vicinity but also 10-20 feet away. This revelation made me question the social implications of the people living in this area. It led to outward pity and sadness. Furthermore, I am increasingly concerned about the laziness of people and our community as a whole. Athens is public and all of ours to enjoy. Given this, why hadn’t this been cleaned prior to our project? In a larger sense, I am concerned about how numerous this type of negative activity is for America as a whole.
I wish I could say I have hope for the immediate future. Given that Athens is blessed with the environmentally conscious University of Georgia, it can be assumed that the most effort possible is being brought forward to decrease environmental degradation. Litter requires the most menial action to clean up. All you need is gloves, a grabber, and a trash bag. It doesn’t require extensive research or any advanced machinery. If Athens has large amounts of litter even with an active eco-conscious community and programs such as Rivers Alive, then any city could be extensively littered. But that situation is actually not the case and this is where my hope arises: city-planning. With increasing mapping technology, city planners can absorb and note information about where trash piles up. It turns out that litter is dismissed as being solvable by menial action. However, litter clean-ups could be improved from more advanced information. Technology can be used to decrease our environmental pollution and I have long-term hope for those changes.
I enjoyed my time with Josh and my time helping the environment. It felt great to contribute. I was impressed by Rivers Alive as a whole and their ability to locate sites that are in need of cleaning up. However, I am saddened that the litter exists in the first place. This experience also reminds me of the great demand Athens and other communities have for volunteer work, so I will be doing more clean-ups in the future. I will also communicate my concern to people I know so that the word goes around. I hope that Athens and other communities can solve their litter problems and promote a greater eco-consciousness for the world.

Final Project Reflection – Rowan Wiley

I attended the Rivers Alive waterway cleanup on 10/5 from 9 am until 11:30 am, and worked all morning at the Derby and Branch site removing trash from the creek and bagging it so that it could be disposed of. There were all kinds of things left there including a giant rug, two animal skulls, and a crossbow bolt, but bottles seemed to be the most common.

I was shocked by how much trash there was, I had no idea that people threw that much into waterways. It didn’t look too bad from the road, but once we got into the woods and the creek there were hundreds of pieces of trash scattered everywhere. Some of the stuff had obviously been there a long time, but other pieces of trash were relatively new. This proves that this is an ongoing problem that started many years ago. Luckily, we had a lot of people working with us, and we were able to get the majority of the trash cleaned up and taken care of.

Keeping our waterways clean and trash free should be a relatively easy task, it doesn’t take much effort at all to hold on to a piece of trash and place it in the proper receptacle rather than chuck it into a stream. Also, if people just picked up trash that they found instead of ignoring it, the problem wouldn’t reach the scale that it is at today. Otherwise you end up with a huge buildup of trash and waste products which profoundly affect the environment. Plants and animals are harmed by litter and water quality can suffer as a result of unsafe trash.

I felt like we accomplished a lot at the event, but that if we don’t come back frequently the problem will just reappear. I think an important step to take in order to address this problem is to increase awareness and try to educate people on the harm that they do when they throw trash into a waterway. I am willing to continue to work to pick up trash that others leave behind, but I think that it would be a lot more efficient if I instead helped show them why it isn’t ok for them to litter.

Climate Simulation – Edwin Shepherd

When I played my role in the policy exercise, I had mixed emotions. I felt like, as the USA, we had more bargaining power than any other group so we should be able to have the greatest effect on reducing world emissions. I was kind of frustrated at how long it took for everyone to negotiate and also at how little each adjustment affected the climate. My group became much more willing to donate money and to decrease carbon emissions as the simulation progressed. We realized, through negotiations with China, that our two nations needed to come together and commit to an earlier peak year. We were able to get China to work with us by matching their donations. I believe that emissions can be cut but it might be a “too little, too late” scenario regarding climate damage. The major barrier to the implementation of proposals was that we did not want to take an economic hit to make a small improvement to the climate. We were less likely to give more money if it only had a small impact. To catalyze change in the US, we need to raise public awareness of the issues with our climate to get more public support for climate-friendly bills and to make people more likely to reduce our own emissions.

Rivers Alive Outreach Project – Joshua Baker

At Carriage Lane, trash ranged from as small as a receipt from Arby’s to as big as a stack of illegally dumped tires.

Chase Ghannam and I volunteered for clean-up at the Carriage Lane site for the Rivers Alive Outreach project. This road is directly adjacent to two sets of apartments and a Greek-life house. As a result, there is bound to be a large amount of litter throughout the area, including beer bottles with varying amounts of liquid, partially eaten Lunchables packages, and filled-baby diapers. With several teams, we all spanned out across the site. Chase and I assigned ourselves to the patch of woods next to the Greek-life house, which proved to be a very challenging region to clean.
Despite initially thinking there would be a large amount of rubbish, I was very much surprised at the sheer amount of trash scattered throughout the woods. It made me extremely concerned for two major reasons. 1) If this area were not a recognized clean-up site, would the trash have ever been picked up? If not, would it have just continued to pile up without any community response? 2) How many other areas in Athens are left with this excessive amount of trash littering the environment that no one cleans up? Seeing the trash concerns me deeply that some people lack so much regard for the environment and throw out that much trash into the woods.
Despite the concern I initially felt, I now have significantly more hope. I now know that there are several organizations that are actively trying to improve the conditions of some environments that are plagued with trash. The selflessness of the people who regularly volunteer for Rivers Alive is astonishing. If more people follow the example of these amazing human beings and if efforts are expanded to more sites, so much can be accomplished in improving the environment.
I learned so much from this experience. I cannot put into words the amazement and appreciation I have for Rivers Alive. I look forward to volunteering again next year at another site, hopefully bringing along even more friends to show them what I now know to be true, that littering is not only present in our society, but it is an epidemic.

Athens Rivers Alive – Silvy Park

On October 5th, I participated in the Athens Rivers Alive clean-up. I specifically volunteered at the MLK Greenway site with about twenty other volunteers, some of which were also from our biology class. The site was very close to a river, so I could hear and see the water. I saw lots of trash, especially broken pieces of glass, and my main role was to pick up as much of that trash as I could. Thankfully, the volunteer crew provided us with gloves, so I could safely pick up the glass pieces. One of the main coordinators of the event spoke to us about the history of the location and explained why there was so much trash embedded into the ground. Apparently, back in the day, people would put the trash into the ground of sloped areas in an attempt to prevent erosion. Overall, although the event was tiring, I enjoyed it.
It disappointed me that there was so much trash, even though Athens Rivers Alive does the clean-up every year. In my mind, I was expecting a lot of paper and rubber products, so it was surprising to me when there were so many broken glass products. However, it was interesting to dig up random items from the ground. For example, within about ten minutes of cleaning, I found a spoon and a pair of shoes.
The experience opened my eyes to the problem of pollution in Athens. Prior to the experience, I did not know that there was much much waste and trash in the city. However, now that I know, I am open to doing what I can and even participating in the event next year as well. In addition to that, I acquired more communication and collaboration skills, as it was a joint effort to clean-up the site.
As a result of this experience, I will make a more conscious effort to keep Athens clean. I learned that there is so much trash, even under the ground, and that it is a significant issue. Knowing more about this trash problem, I will be sure to volunteer at more events that involve cleaning our home.

Clarke Central High School Outreach

Nina Boone

In class we did soil dilutions and then plated our dilutions on different tet plates. We then incubated the plates and waited for bacteria to form. Once there was bacteria we counted the colonies and decided what dilution and tet produced the most bacteria. Once we completed the experiment in class we went to a local high school and helped the students complete the same assignment. We helped them count and record the bacteria that had grown on their plates. The exact experiment will most likely not be similar to something I do in the future but I enjoyed reaching out to the high school and helping the students so I could see myself doing something similar to this.

I learned that I understood the experiment much better once I had to teach it to high school students. I really enjoyed doing a hands on project where I actually got to interact with younger biology students. I also could tell that the students got a better understanding of antibiotic resistance which was very satisfying since it meant that my work had paid off.