Where Did All the Trash Cans Go?

Ashley Patterson, Staff Reporter

 

LEE High School since the start of the 2022-2023 school year has moved all cafeteria trash cans outside during lunch periods. After lunch, students are prompted to throw their trash outside in appropriate receptacles. This may be convenient to students dining outside, but it leaves students inside and janitors with multiple problems.  

 

“It would be much easier to move trash cans back inside to make it easier for students to throw away trash instead of leaving it on the tables,” senior James Patterson said. Students dining inside often do not want to make the trip outside with their lunch trays so they will leave it on the tables. 

 

Although the original purpose for placing trash cans outside was to help janitors keep the inside cafeteria clean and orderly, it serves the opposite purpose and creates more of a burden on janitors and students alike.

 

On top of frantically emptying outside trash cans, janitors have to spend extra time not only wiping off the tables for the next lunch period, but having to clean trays and trash off of benches, floors, and tables. “It’s definitely harder since the trash cans have been moved outside but I still do my job…we all have to pitch in and help each other out a little more than we used to with keeping our campus clean,” said a janitor who wishes to remain anonymous.

 

If trash cans were allowed to be inside of the cafeteria students would be more inclined to throw away their trash and stack their trays, janitors would be relieved of cleaning up after individual students, and students would be able to take more responsibility for themselves. “I feel like everyone would pick up much more with trash cans inside. The easier it is, the more people are willing to do it – right now, it’s difficult to get to the trash cans, especially being on crutches,” senior Nathan Copeland said. 

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