Hiking at Starved Rock State Park is a beloved summer activity and this summer, I had the opportunity to bask in the waterfalls and overlooks the trails have to offer. My biggest surprise, however, wasn’t the hidden gems. It was the countless bottles and wrappers thrown carelessly on the trails.

The juxtaposition was a harsh reminder that even given the opportunity, humans refuse to coexist with the environment. In fact, volunteers hike every week to fill multiple garbage bags of trash left behind by careless hikers.

The reality is ironic: Hikers have the chance to enjoy a quaint and diverse nature preserve, but, in traditional human fashion, feel no responsibility to uphold what makes it so charming — the seemingly untapped nature of the trails.

Starved Rock is not the only victim of abuse from tourists. Anyone who went to Country Thunder, Lollapalooza or North Avenue beach this summer knows the damage that can be done in a short amount of time.

Memorial Day weekend was a particular disaster — hundreds of suburban kids made their ways down to North Avenue beach, only to leave it completely trashed with the remnants of their partying. Mark Brown, assistant director of landscaping for the park district, said he had “never seen it look like that, ever.”

A lot of us beach and festival-goers came back to campus this week, and it’s important that we don’t take the University’s outdoor areas for granted as we do our various summer destinations. The Main Quad is great until you’re sitting next to a squirrel digging through the crumbs of a Doritos bag.

Of course, the solution to this problem seems simple: Throw away your garbage. The beaches downtown have plenty of garbage cans, and thankfully the Memorial Day mess was picked up by the next day. But the problem is not due to inconvenience — it’s a lack of regard and sense of responsibility from party-goers.

Festivals like Lollapalooza epitomize the ironic reality of the way we treat our environment. During those last few days in July, you can scroll through endless pictures and snapchats of the Chicago skyline, the lakeshore, and Buckingham Fountain. Everyone seems to show an appreciation for the city, but apparently not enough to throw away their Lou Malnati’s boxes in one of the dozens of trash cans scattered around Grant Park.

But Lollapalooza stands out because of its new efforts to reduce the inevitable litter. For example, their Rock and Recycle program gives concert-goers the chance to pick up recyclables off the ground in exchange for a t-shirt.

The festival also provides CamelBak filling stations to encourage people to refill their water bottles instead of throwing them away or on the ground. Brittany Pearce, a spokeswoman for Lollapalooza, told the Chicago Tribune that festival workers collected 132.4 tons of recycled and composted material during 2015’s three-day festival.

If the University implemented similar incentive programs, the campus wouldn’t suffer so much from the smell and sight of beer cans and food wrappers every Sunday morning. In addition, adding more bottle-filling water fountains to the campus’ older buildings would not only be convenient, but encourage the use of reusable water bottles.

It’s unfortunate that people need an incentive to keep the areas they use clean, but Lollapalooza proved that it works. That said, we shouldn’t wait for the University to take initiative; students have to recognize their responsibility to our beloved campus.

For now, a rule of thumb: Don’t treat our campus like your personal Country Thunder campground.

Isabella is a sophomore in ACES.
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