We gotta keep the grounds clean!

[BrokenPsyche]

Alright, so I know part of con is about having fun and eating with friends and hangin' out. And people tend to forget things, and that's fine! But I gotta say, I've noticed that a lot of trash gets thrown away, and by 'away' I mean thrown on the ground.
Given that the farmers market or whatever it is goes on during con, that not all of it is from the con attendees, but, let's try to do our part and not litter at con.
At the end of con, all the paper, wrappers, bottles, cartons, plastic, ect. gets left for the con staff and other people to clean up, and that just isn't fair!


I'm not one of those "Littering is bad for the earth! You're a bad person if you litter! Save mother earth!" people, but c'mon, no one likes getting trash stuck to their shoes.
So again, let's do our part to keep it clean this year. For us and the people of Vancouver.
We gotta work together!

[superjaz]

What I saw a lot was trash can just being plain full and not having any sort of recycling option so full trash can with bottles and can put on the lid (that way if someone wants to take them they don't have to dig)   and little bags around the ground. 

More trash cans?  def need more recycle options would help with the over flow.

[BrokenPsyche]

What I saw a lot was trash can just being plain full and not having any sort of recycling option so full trash can with bottles and can put on the lid (that way if someone wants to take them they don't have to dig)   and little bags around the ground. 

More trash cans?  def need more recycle options would help with the over flow.

Definitely. Or maybe just empty the trash more often.
Last year I had a starbucks cup and the trash was full in both the Hilton and in the park, so I just went around back of the hotel and put it in the dumpster. It's a little extra time but it's better then leaving someone else to deal with it.
 

[kuroki-neko]

Well with any of the tycoon PC games it always helped to have lots of trash cans all over to keep a certain radius clean. I think maybe a trash can in each room the con is being held in might work.

However I'm not sure how that would be implemented, trash cans are not free...

[veraca]

Trash cans in the buildings isn't the problem generally. I think every panel room and/or viewing room has one. However, outside at the park has like 5 or 6? If the con could bring in more trash cans and staff to clean them (and take recyclables), that'd be great, but implementing it and finding the budget might be hard.

I've wondered if it might be better to have someone go to Costco and get a bunch of trash bags, but when they're full, we just have... trash bags... everywhere... Which doesn't help the situation if no one's going to move these bags to a disposal area. Same with if a box is set up for recycling-- I think there's 2 or 3 stations inside the hotel, but I don't know if many people know where they even are, or they get full.

[BrokenPsyche]

Trash cans in the buildings isn't the problem generally. I think every panel room and/or viewing room has one. However, outside at the park has like 5 or 6? If the con could bring in more trash cans and staff to clean them (and take recyclables), that'd be great, but implementing it and finding the budget might be hard.

I've wondered if it might be better to have someone go to Costco and get a bunch of trash bags, but when they're full, we just have... trash bags... everywhere... Which doesn't help the situation if no one's going to move these bags to a disposal area. Same with if a box is set up for recycling-- I think there's 2 or 3 stations inside the hotel, but I don't know if many people know where they even are, or they get full.

Yeah. You would think 5 or 6 would be plenty but it's far from it. With that being said, I know a good 40% of the trash you find around could be prevented if people would just pick up their crap. Again, it's a group effort deal. When it was in Portland, there was the same problem and a few con members brought bags, filled them, threw them in a pick up and put them in a dumpster. Which I thought was very clever and considerate

[dark4ever]

Keeping it clean is a really good idea, though. We don't want the hotel/Vancouver to hate us. Especially with how kindly they've been treating us.

[BrokenPsyche]

Yeah, so I think it's important to take it upon ourselves to keep it clean.

[Hillopurkki]

One thing I've found is handy is that if you have a backpack/bag/purse to carry, fold up a garbage bag inside it, so that when you eat lunch outside/not near a can, you can put your trash in it, and get rid of it when you find an appropriate trash can/recycling.
I got REALLY peeved with the amount of trash that was in the park, and I know we can work to fix this, or at least make this less of a problem.

[veraca]

I got more annoyed by the plastic and glass bottles that were piled around the trash cans. I wish the hotel had more recycling bins so that problem can be fixed.

[kuroki-neko]

At least I can get more bottle caps for my fallout cosplays

[BlackjackGabbiani]

In advance, we should petition the hotel to get more recycling options out. Even just another trash can with a sign hung on it would be better than nothing.

And let the city know that they should be picking up the trash in the park more often.

But also...should we institute a rule against littering? Like, con-wise?

[BrokenPsyche]

In advance, we should petition the hotel to get more recycling options out. Even just another trash can with a sign hung on it would be better than nothing.

And let the city know that they should be picking up the trash in the park more often.

But also...should we institute a rule against littering? Like, con-wise?

I actually think that would be a good idea. But then again it would be hard to find proof of a certain person throwing one piece of trash out of hundreds on the ground.
I will see what I can do to bring a spar trash can maybe. I know where the dumpsters are so I would be able to throw it away myself. I know a friend of the runner of kcon so I'll see what I can do about talking to them.

[BlackjackGabbiani]

Well yeah but there's a lot you can do if you SEE someone litter. At least it should be covered under what security and etc can intervene in.

[BrokenPsyche]

Yeah, true.

[Hillopurkki]

Unfortunately, this happened again this year, and once again, I didn't see very many garbage cans or recycle bins in the park area aside from a few that were installed in really hard to find spots. I spent five minutes wandering, trying to find a place to dispose of my lunch trash.
On the last day of the con, I noticed a certain fandom group was literally leaving faygo bottles in a big pile in the park, and I was praying to god that they would pick them up. When I left, I saw there were some still littering the area. I noticed faygo bottles left in the conspace too, and I was absolutely fed up with it.

[reppy]

I really do hope the trash was the result of people simply forgetting, e.g., they set it down because they were resting, were asked for their picture, and moved on and forgot about it.

It bothers me to think that people would just throw garbage on the ground in the park. Not only does it look bad, but it could also be harmful for any animals in the park. Especially pets!

Is this topic covered in Opening Ceremonies?