Trash Initiative: Students begin a trash pick-up initiative to clean up East’s outdoor spaces through SHARE and Environmental Club

With the help of SHARE coordinators Erin Billingsley and Sheryl Kaplan, sophomore Bella Broce is organizing a SHARE project where students can earn volunteer hours by picking up trash on East’s campus. The project’s first meeting will take place at 11 a.m. on March 23 with contribution from members of the Environmental Club. 

Earlier this school year when Broce was walking to the Prairie Village pool parking lot, she felt ashamed as she noticed the empty Whataburger container, disposable vape pods, crushed up Twisted Tea cans and a variety of other plastics scattered around East’s property.

“It’s wild what people will leave on the ground,” Broce said. “And it just doesn’t reflect well on our school. It hurts our environment as well. I wanted to see change.”

Broce’s project asks participants to meet in the parking lot off of 75th and Mission and pick up garbage around the entirety of the campus for about two hours.  Participants can sign up by scanning a QR code to access the SignUpGenius for volunteers.

Environmental Club founder and sophomore Shubra Durgavathi is grateful to see other students working to care for the environment and litter on school grounds outside of the club. She’s been passionate about the environment since visiting India as a child with her family and seeing litter there — sparking her dedication to keeping the environment clean.

“We’ve been able to do a lot of good things so far,” Durgavathi said. “But we can’t care for the school all by ourselves either. It’s nice to see others care too.”

Environmental Club sponsor Rusty Debey hopes that members of his generation will set a better example for upcoming generations by caring for the planet through picking up after themselves.

“It’s really unfortunate, the world we’re leaving [the younger] generation with right now,” Debey said. “It’s encouraging to see students contributing to the environment as well.”

According to the National Library of Medicine, the pollution by plastics has become the most impactful environmental threat. There’s a major concern regarding ‘microplastics’ which refers to debris that result from the breakdown of plastic products. Similarly, Debey is hopeful that increased awareness will aid environmental efforts.

“Microplastics have many long term effects on the environment and the animals living in it,” Debey said. “Litter is also plainly unattractive and misrepresents our school.”

According to Broce, the project will continue throughout the school year.  With support from faculty, Broce’s goal is to maintain a cleaner environment at East, and set a higher standard for environmental responsibilities in the process. 

Together, the new SHARE initiative and the Environmental Club are hoping to provide further opportunities for volunteers in the future. According to Billingsley, Broce has plans for larger events, such as an event for Earth Day, to fundraise.

“Students are always welcome to propose new projects,” Billingsley said. “Even if it’s not at the typical sign-up time, we’re always looking to support students in their work to improve East and our community as a whole.”