As the fall semester begins, new and returning students will be crowding the halls of Los Medanos College. This means new classes, new faces and unfortunately, more trash.

As students of this beautiful college, it is our job to help keep this campus clean not only for ourselves, but for others. I know I don’t enjoy walking around campus and seeing trash laying around.

LMC provides trash bins as well as new recycling bins for students to use.

While walking to class, I can see cigarette butts, cans and wrappers among the bushes and on the sidewalk. This is extremely disrespectful, not only to the environment but to the school.

LMC has made numerous improvements to the campus and the students who attend classes here need to respect the facility.

It should be a given that everyone on campus be courteous enough to simply throw away their trash and recyclables. Littering is not one of LMC’s main concerns, but it is one that needs to be addressed.

I cannot count the number of times I have seen students blatantly throw their wrappers and Styrofoam cups over their shoulders, simply because it is an inconvenience to walk 10 feet to the nearest trash can.

The trash that doesn’t make it into the bins ends up elsewhere, so not only is littering taking away from the beauty of our campus, it is also putting the local wildlife as well as the environment at risk for harm.

The damage might not always be visible, but as the saying goes, time will always tell.

There are many recycling bins located around campus, enough to the point where littering should not be an issue. It is rather upsetting that many do not care about the ramifications of their actions.

Some students may not believe that throwing their Skittles wrappers from their backpacks to the ground is a big deal, but it affects the  campus and the environment more than you know.

The college should post more signs informing students about where they can discard their trash and recyclables.

In addition, the college should consider organizing campus clean ups. Even without a formal organized event, students can volunteer their own time to clean the grounds by picking up and disposing the trash they see on the ground. This will go a long way toward making the college look clean and beautiful.

I do not believe littering is considered a big deal by most people here at Los Medanos College, but I do think it is a problem that has become increasingly noticeable during my time as a student.

I do not go around looking for litter, but when there is trash lying around campus, it is extremely visible to say the least.

The custodial staff continuously works hard to keep the campus as clean as possible. It is not up to us to dirty it as the day goes by, making their jobs more difficult in the process.

Together we can work to keep an eye out for litterbugs or quite possibly take matters into our own hands and to pick up any unwanted trash we see. It is not as tedious a task as one may think, but simply a kind action.

I personally do not want to learn in a dirty environment and this is why I do not contribute to the littering issue here at LMC.

LMC is a stunning campus, and deserves to be treated as such. It’s up to the students to determine whether or not they want a clean college atmosphere.

It does not take much time or effort to keep the campus clean. The students can be the first to put their foot forward and help keep LMC beautiful.H