Litter Out of Control in Southern Illinois

The men of Alpha Tau Omega spent their Saturday morning trudging through the swamp that separates Route 13 and the Carbondale Wal-Mart. Their shoes were protected from the muck and mire by bright orange trash bags crudely fashioned around their feet. A cold wind chilled their bones, but they had a goal in mind. Alpha Tau Omega wanted the area to look nice, even if only for a few hours. They spent two hours picking up trash as part of Spring Cleanup, an event organized by the Beautify Southern Illinois Student Alliance. The fraternity was part of the 115 students who volunteered to make the event possible.

"We've been working with Beautify Southern Illinois all year," said Alpha Tau Omega President Adam Acree. "We'll probably be here every weekend for the rest of the semester." Acree, a sophomore from Mount Carmel studying architecture, said last semester his fraternity spent between 40 and 50 hours picking up litter. Acree said this semester they have adopted the area around Wal-Mart and they intend to be there every weekend. And they will need to go every weekend just to keep up. Carbondale, like much of southern Illinois, has a culture of littering, said Paul Restivo, director of the Center for Environmental Health and Safety.

"People think it's OK to throw debris out their windows, apparently, because it's everywhere," Restivo said. "If you just stop and look down you'll see all kinds of debris. Just take a minute, stop, pullover and look at the ground, and you'll see it." Restivo first tried to tackle southern Illinois' litter problem in 2000. Restivo organized volunteers to clean up litter along a one-mile stretch on Route 51 between McAndrew Stadium and Pleasant Hill Road. At the time, Restivo expected to fill his pick-up truck's bed with garbage bags, but the amount of trash they collected blew away his expectations. After the truck quickly filled up, the group realized they were going to have to come back another day.

"It was an eye opening experience to see how much litter there really is," Restivo said. "The amount of liter is just mind numbing." Two years ago the leaders of Franklin, Jackson, Jefferson, Perry and Williamson counties worked with the Southern Illinois Workforce Investment Board to hire a team of national experts to audit the area in an attempt to identify possible economic opportunities. The result was a 150-page report that outlined needed improvements in the region. Raymond Lenzi, the co-coordinator of the Jackson County branch of the Beautify Southern Illinois campaign, said the authors of the report mentioned litter as an obstacle to bringing businesses to southern Illinois. "They mentioned that they thought the region had an unkempt look, and one of the ways to fix that would be to clean up the area," Lenzi said.

SIU Board of Trustees Chairman Glenn Poshard decided to take action. Poshard agreed to spearhead the Beautify Southern Illinois campaign after coming to the conclusion that litter really is a regional problem. "Prospective business and industry are attracted to an area that takes pride in cleanliness and natural beauty," Poshard said. "The natural beauty of southern Illinois is one of our finest assets. Businesses are repelled by trash and pollution." Poshard is not the only one from the University working to clean up the state's southern region. Tiffany Heil, a junior from Mundelein studying Recreation, is the president of the Beautify Southern Illinois Student Alliance. Heil, who coordinates student volunteers, said a lot of students don't appreciate the beauty Carbondale has to offer.

"I hear them say 'Carbondale's boring,'" Heil said. "I said the same thing my freshman year." Heil said things changed for her when she joined a sorority and got involved. Heil said she fell in love with the area, found a new home, and discovered that she could never go back to living in Chicago's north suburbs. Heil had advice for out-of-towners having trouble adjusting to the area. "It doesn't matter how long you're going to be here," Heil said. "Get involved. Quit littering, start helping." Heil said she has volunteered more than 100 hours of her time, but students don't need to go to those lengths to make a difference. Heil said all it takes is a change in behavior.

"It's really not that hard. There's a trash can. Put the litter in the trash can," Heil said. "There's actually citizens that live here, and they take pride in their town and the University, but how can the community take pride in the University if they're going to make it ugly?" However, Restivo said fighting the problem is more than cleaning up litter. "Unfortunately, the answer isn't just continuing to pick up litter," Restivo said. "That isn't the way change is going to occur. It's going to have to be a major educational campaign. Basically you have to change the culture." Like so many other cultural changes, Restivo said eliminating litter starts with educating the youth. "My perfect dream is that a 6-year-old girl will turn to her father and say 'Daddy, don't litter' or 'why don't we recycle?' and the parent will listen," Restivo said.

Restivo said in 2003 an English class at SIUC combined writing and marketing projects with the fight against litter. Many of the students involved with that class became the founding members of the Beautify Southern Illinois Student Alliance. Restivo said service-learning projects, like the one carried out by the English class, are a great way to reach young people. He said he envisions students at all levels doing a variety of things to learn about litter while fighting it at the same time. "It's not just picking up litter," Restivo said. "You can learn from just seeing the problem, whether you're writing a press release or doing a photo essay."

Some day, the brand names of popular soft drinks, beer and fast food products will be seen in advertisements and not along southern Illinois' roadsides, or at least that is the goal Poshard, Heil, Restivo, Acree and dozens of student volunteers are working to accomplish. "If all the litter was gone, I'd be out of a job, but that's OK," Heil said. "You guys can take my job away." Those interested in getting involved will find everything they need at www.cehs.siu.edu/beautify.