Pick it up.

Now AUB isn’t exactly a dirty campus, but then again we have a maintenance staff for that. What would happen if for just one day Sukleen didn’t exist? Beirut, and AUB for that matter, would turn into a pigsty. All because of litterers and lazy people who just can’t take five minutes out of their extraordinarily busy lives to walk all the way over to a garbage can. 

Lebanon is well known for its beautiful scenery - in fact most of its income comes from tourism. So why are so many Lebanese people ruining the best national treasure that they posses? Why is it so impossibly difficult to reuse, reduce and recycle? I’ll tell you why. It’s because people just don’t care. Global warming is merely a whisper to be inflicted on future generations, pollution, an inevitable concept that’s everyone else’s problem. Second-hand smoke is a myth, and those who complain are being just plain inconsiderate to the social aura of AUB. And recycling? Well, that’s for environmental freaks. One or two plastic bottles aren’t going to harm anything! 

That’s what you think. Did you know that it takes nearly 500 years for plastic to decompose? That it takes 24 trees to make only 1 ton of newspaper? That just one recycled glass bottle would save enough energy to power a computer for 25 minutes? Read people. Learn. This is our earth we’re polluting. OUR earth. So when you throw away that glass bottle you just finished, try and remember that glass that ends up in landfills NEVER decomposes. You are only ruining our greenery and polluting our land. 

Then what happens? Well firstly, our landfills would overflow. Our water sources would eventually become contaminated. Natural resources would be wasted creating new plastic and aluminum that could have easily been generated from recycled materials. Litter would diffuse everywhere, making streets and highways trash dumps. And then? Water would become scarce, which would in turn cause massive food shortages, which would then create huge amounts of starvation and even possible wars. 

But wait! Just because YOU don’t recycle doesn’t mean the world will end. Right? WRONG! You are one person in a chain of people thinking along the same line – that what they do won’t matter in the long run- a fact which is completely and utterly untrue. Millions of people choose not to recycle when they are perfectly capable of doing so. Imagine what would happen if just half of those people began to. And they encouraged their friends to, who encouraged their friends, who encouraged their friends. A chain reaction, all to promote global welfare. All for our environment.

So I ask you, students of AUB, to really, seriously, listen. Don’t just throw things on the ground because you can’t find a garbage can, because in the long run, you will only be hurting yourself. Let’s treasure the beauty of Beirut and maintain it for future generations. Let’s not be those people who think recycling is a waste of time. Let’s just listen. Please.