This coming weekend I will be helping Zach with his second cigarette butt cleanup. I know campus but be filthy and filled with them, but I have no idea how many people smoke, or how much. This is just one part of the pollution problem on campus and Nationwide. I think Zach and his group are doing a great thing that people will remember. By showing the impact of cigarettes by pilling them in the North Plaza later this month, Zach’s group will demonstrate how one seemingly small thing can add up, hopefully making people more aware of their actions, and the consequences of those actions.
The cigarette butt cleanup could be the beginning of something great, what if the Mason community could be invigorated to stop pollution in their every day lives? Fairfax, not only George Mason University, would be a much cleaner place. If the project was continued and expanded to include all trash, how shocked would Mason students be to learn the full impact George Mason has as a whole on the local environmental scale? Enough to pick up a cup or bottle and put it in the trash or recycling? What if we showed them how much of their trash could be recycled? It could make just one more person recycle every day. Just one more person over their lifetime can make a difference. Statistics could be shown on the estimated impacts of one person. The impact on the local plant and wildlife could also be shown through statistics. For example, how many animals are found dead on campus due to pollution.
One person can inspire many to do better. I hope Zach’s project goes well, and I am looking forward to helping him. If his event can alter the view of just one person and make them more aware, then something will have changed to make the future just a little brighter.
Sustainability LLC 
That was the exact thing I was hoping to show people because when people are walking through campus, they are usually on their phones or talking with their friends so they can’t see the small things such as the cigarette butts. I am hoping that once I do showcase the cigarette butts in North Plaza, it will make people start to notice all the trash that is around campus that you originally would not notice.
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Nicole, thanks so much for your post and for supporting Zach’s project. None of these projects would be possible without supporting one another’s efforts, so thanks for living up to the LLC spirit and lending a hand š
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I hope that this project gets some legislation off the ground for campus. I know most of my friends campuses in Texas are smoke-free and I really wish it was like that here. We were actually talking about how smoking has become deviant in sociology. I often wonder if it has to do with the bad health effects of coming or the environmental effects.
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