Rivers Alive Cleanup

I did the River’s Alive Cleanup for my outreach project. Specifically, I worked at the MLK Greenway helping clean up the riverbank. There we searched for trash and materials that shouldn’t be near waterways. I went with a few of my classmates and we worked in pairs to find and bag the trash.

I was pleasantly surprised by how small the amount of rubbish we found was. That is not to say that there was nothing to find; there were still bags and bags of garbage but having been around other similar rivers I could really see the difference that Rivers Alive has made in the years it has been working on the banks. It was especially obvious as there was a private stretch of land in our area that we left alone which clearly had significantly more debris in the wooded areas. While we still found objects that frankly had no reason to be there, I could see the progress that had been made and was really proud of the people who have been working toward improving our river.

I think experiencing the process of cleaning up such important areas is useful for everyone in that it makes our effects on the environment easier to understand. I do not think that the experience required any special skills or knowledge, though I found having some personal experience in the woods helpful. While I did not run into any poison ivy or snakes, I found that being prepared for such situations helped put me at ease so I would suggest others have some short teachings on such things as well.

I found that I enjoyed the experience more than I expected and may consider doing it again in the future. The people who were in charge were really nice and appreciated everyone’s help regardless of skill level. I had the chance to speak with one of the men who had participated in Rivers Alive many times before and he told me about how in the 70s people used to use their trash to build up embankments, not knowing any better. I found this fascinating as I have never understood before how so much garbage ever began to accumulate by these rivers. In the future regardless of whether I am able to help with cleanup again, I plan to support the efforts of River Alive and encourage others to do the same and take care of the planet we have.

Zach O’Connor – Tailgate Cleanup

For my outreach project, I participated in the tailgate cleanup after the Missouri game. Our goal was to collect trash that was left behind after tailgating. The group I was in walked along Tanyard Creek from Oglethorpe to Bolton. On the way back, we walked along South Lumpkin Street. Overall, there was not that much trash left behind. The university hires a crew to clean up after gameday, and they do a great job collecting trash. However, there were still places where we were able to collect trash. The majority of trash found were hidden away next to walking paths. There was also some trash in the creek. The majority of trash collected was related to tailgating. We mainly collected bottles, cans, and red solo cups.

During this project, I was surprised about the tailgate trash situation. I was surprised that a cleanup crew works that well and fast to clean our campus, and I was also shocked that people would throw their trash off to the side or in the creek. What concerned me more was the broken glass that we came across. At a few places, we came across broken glass bottles on the sidewalk. This is dangerous for people to walk around. People need to be more considerate when they have glass bottles. Even with all the trash cans dispersed for gameday, there are some people who will just leave their trash on the ground. By participating in this outreach, it made me appreciate the people who clean the UGA campus. After gamedays, the campus is a wreck, and these workers will clean the whole campus. This experience made me more aware of maintaining a clean environment around UGA. It helped me understand that everyone needs to chip in to keep the great appearance of our campus.

Project Reflections- David Wang

On Saturday, from 2:00 to 4:00, I went with Nate, Richard, Stephen, and Will to promote awareness about waste and sustainability for our Tailgating Service Project. We traveled across various areas in the campus, including Myers Quad and the Physics building, to educate tailgaters about recycling and gave them pins, informational cards, and trash bags to help promote their incentive to clean up after themselves. We switched around when we walked up to tailgaters in regards to promoting awareness about recycling and sustainability. Because it was a game day, we were all also expected to promote school spirit, such as by saying “go dawgs.”

I was very pleased in regards to the experience. The tailgaters were very friendly, and they were all interested in regards to the messages that we had to say. Before the experience, we all realized that we needed to give a speech to tailgaters about sustainability, but we were all somewhat anxious about giving such a speech, as nearly all the tailgaters were strangers to us. However, their friendliness helped us better give such a speech, which helped us spread the message about sustainability.

The experience helped me better understand the knowledge that some tailgaters are unaware of in regards to recycling and the sustainability incentives that the campus itself has, such as how UGA has various cardboard boxes around the campus so that tailgaters can easily dispose of their waste. After the experience, I was able to better build up my social abilities as a result of traveling around the various tailgates. Before the experience, I thought that spreading a message could ruin the tailgating experience for others. However, after the experience, I realized that this is not the case.

As a result of this experience, I will use the knowledge about recycling and sustainability for future events to encourage others to clean up after themselves. I understood the importance of recycling, but after the experience, I learned more about the items that can or cannot be recycled. In the future, with the knowledge that I have gained about goods that can or cannot be recycled, I will ensure that I properly dispose of trash in order to promote sustainability as a whole.

Nico Fontova Tailgating Reflection

There was not much trash left out after the game. The cleaners athletics hired did a wonderful job making the campus look almost as if nothing ever happened—keyword being “almost”. With so many people around, there certainly was much more trash to clean that street sweepers and large-scale cleaners never would have spotted, such as the solo cup pictured above. We found a lot of solo cups, water bottles, beer cans, etc., which likely never would have been spotted had we not been there. The garbage was hidden in bushes, and under cars, and because of that it is important that small groups of people work to clean it up. Men in trucks were likely never to see the several dozen beer cans we found in the trees, but they are still damaging to the environment. We even found an old tire and ironing board, and who knows how long those were in there. There is almost always waster in our environment, and that is why taking at least a hour every once in a while to clean is so important. My impact may not have been large, but it is a step in the right direction, and it shows that something should be done to help clean campus in addition to what the University already pays for.

Project Reflection- Nate Ware

For my outreach project, I went with David, Richard, Will, and Stephen to tell tailgaters about recycling and encourage them to do so. We walked around Myers Quad and handed out trash bags and recycling bags to tailgaters and talked to them about the benefits of recycling. We also offered pins and fliers that help identify what is and what isn’t recyclable. Ahead of time we scoped out the tailgating locations that we felt we could help inform the greatest amount of people. We decided that Myers quad, since there is a large population of tailgaters there every week, would be the best place to conduct this project. We took turns walking up to tailgates and handing out recycling bags and talking to them about how recycling can benefit the sustainability here at UGA. By recycling and making sure trash is placed in trash bags we can make sure the tailgating tradition continues and the campus will remain as beautiful as ever. We addressed the three characteristics of information delivery. We always made sure to lead with an introduction followed by an interesting fact to make it intellectually stimulating. If we noticed the tailgate was missing anything in particular we made sure to offer it to them to keep it relevant to the audience. We were all competing to come up with more creative ways to introduce ourselves to engage the audience to what we had to say. One of the discoveries I made was that most tailgaters were very eager to do their part to help keep the campus beautiful, something that going into the day I was not confident of. I also learned that a lot of people already come prepared with trash bags, but they often forget about recycling. We had much more difficulty handing out trash bags because more people already had them. We looked for tailgates without trash bags and recycling bags in order to decide which tailgates we should approach. We also made sure not to approach if we felt we would be interrupting a conversation that may be important or personal. Personally, if I were to do something differently it would be prepare more factual evidence ahead of time in case people asked more follow up questions. Through this experience, I was able to see the causes of pollution through tailgating and how it can affect the watershed, but I also learned that people are willing to do their best to help out where they can. I learned valuable communication skills and more confidence when it comes to approaching groups and lobbying ideas. This exercise was definitely successful for me. I learned about presenting an issue to other people and helping them be the solution rather than the problem.