Plastic bottles, Styrofoam, dental floss picks, fast-food remains and a baby bottle are among a few of the items picked out of the Lozano-Banco Resaca by volunteers the morning of Jan. 14 on the Brownsville campus.
“Be more conscientious of what you do with your trash,” said Janet Evans, who refers to herself as an “eco-walker.” “Throw your trash away! Try to be more involved with the environment.”
Students Luke Rodriguez, Victor Vega and Luis Mares, spotted Evans and fellow eco-walker Nancy Hawks by the resaca on the first day of the spring semester and decided to lend a helping hand.
“They saw us, and they came by and asked if we needed assistance and just took over,” Evans said.
The trio was walking the campus playing Pokémon Go when they decided to complete their good deed for the day.
“I saw them picking up trash, and, to me, I kind of get a little bit irritated whenever I see someone throw trash all over the place,” Mares said. “I wanted to help out, because I know what it’s like.”
The group picked up and disposed of three trash bags full of items in about three hours.
Each student has some background in environmental volunteer service.
From volunteering at occasional beach cleanups in high school to incorporating simple skills they’ve learned at home daily, they do what they can to keep their surroundings clean.
The three expressed interest in helping out in the future and hope to inspire others to do the same.
“Before you throw something away, think about where you’re going to throw it because it affects not just people, but it affects the homes of animals that live there,” Mares said.
Evans and Hawks, both Brownsville residents, began their journey by walking for exercise last September.
After encountering trash during their walks at Dean Porter Park multiple times, they decided to bring trash bags with them and pick up what they could.
The duo decided to revisit campus and clean up the resaca after seeing how polluted it was during one of their routine walks on Jan. 11.
After posting their intentions on social media that night, the team received a donation of a pool net to help their project.
The two were delighted and appreciative of the help from the students, but also expressed their concern with the number of recycling options available on campus.
“A campus like this needs to have the education for the students to put out containers because no one is going to [recycle] unless it is convenient,” Hawks said.
In an interview with The Rider, Hawks mentioned noticing the number of recycling platforms on campus decrease throughout the years.
The pair hopes to expand their project with the help of the university’s Facilities department to reach further into the resaca.
Evans and Hawks hope the campus implements some sort of recycling incentives to further encourage students to participate.
“It’s very sad to me, that this is a college campus where biology is taught, ecology is taught, ornithology is taught,” Hawks said. “[The university] should be the leaders and the example to the rest of Brownsville.”
–Robert Benavidez Jr. contributed to this report.
Student Victor Vega empties a pool net full of trash from the Lozano-Banco Resaca Jan. 14 on the Brownsville campus. Vega was one of the three students who helped volunteer to clean up the resaca.
