There are many things you cannot do on the Ithaca College campus. You can’t eat properly cooked chicken. You can’t date someone who hasn’t already dated three of your friends. You can’t drink an iced chai that’s more chai than milk. We’re used to not having good things. The real kicker, though, is the lack of trash cans.
Imagine, if you will, a cold February day. You just had a two and a half hour Park lecture, which you only survived with a refreshing cup of milk chai. You leave Park Auditorium holding what’s left of your beverage and set out to hike home. Maybe you live in Terrace 6, maybe Circles. You know this trek well. You’re familiar with the burning in your calves, the cold wind in your lungs. But now, added to your journey home, is the fact that you have to hold this stupid fucking cup the whole way.
Your hand is freezing, your skin is cracking. Your eyes search the pathways for trash cans, but there aren’t any. You duck in and out of academic buildings looking for just one recycling bin, but the hallways are deserted.
You don’t want to litter. You go to Ithaca College for Christ’s sake, you care more about the planet than anyone! You eat at Moosewood! You repost Instagram infographics by @mattxiv to your story! You are a good person. Besides, you’d sooner drop out than be seen throwing your trash into the grass of the library quad by your peers.
This isn’t just the problem with a plastic Park Cafe cup. It’s the remains of your Towers wrap. It’s the mint wrapper from Campus Center Dining Hall. It’s a piece of scrap paper, an empty Celsius can, a used tissue. No matter what it is, you cannot throw it away. Your trash is part of you now. It stays crumpled in your hand, moistening with sweat as you huff across campus. It rots in the smallest pocket of your backpack. It gets lost in your coat pockets, only to be rediscovered the following November. And then, even then, there will be no convenient trash can to throw it into.
Aud Fitzgerald is a senior APRMC major who just wants to drink one normal chai. They can be reached at afitzgerald2@ithaca.edu