The word of the day is.......LITTER

[Wayne Doenges]

To the Team/Students/Mentor that left the pizza boxes outside the main entrance, before the concert, you made a big impression on the FIRST VIP's. I think the one words I heard one of them say was "appalled". Some of the boxes were being blown around by the wind.
Also, to the Team/Students/Mentor that left the stack of empty/semi-empty boxed lunch containers next to the trash can. Nothing says "I don't really care about your city because I don't live here" than to leave trash everywhere.
If the trash cans are full, take you debris inside and throw it away. If that won't work, take it with you and throw it away at you room. I'm pretty sure most hotels have trash cans in the rooms.

If I have offended anyone, I'm sorry. It's a pet peeve of mine about litter.

* gets off soap box and puts on flame suit *

[Tetraman]

Good call. Thanks for bringing this to the attention of the FIRST community. I, too, dislike teams/students/mentors that don't do their part in keeping locations and facilities clean, even at least the small amount they are responsible for.

[Chexposito]

I was really surprised when I saw this. It wasn't like there wasn't time to find a place, my Team had a critical transmission that went bad and kept going bad on friday, so we came out late to eat (right after pits closed) before going on to the concert. Even then there was plenty of time to find a trash can...

[santosh]

I agree for the most part.
But at the same time, shouldn't the venue be prepared for such a large volume of trash? It doesnt make littering right, but it cuts of the issue of teams choosing to litter at its source.

[Koko Ed]

If I have offended anyone, I'm sorry. It's a pet peeve of mine about litter.
*

If you offended someone, Wayne it's because you got thier attention and they are embarrassed by their actions.
May you continue to offend.

[Jim Wilks]

What really appalled me was the fact that all of this was considered trash!

Tens of thousands of those lunch containers, all marked as recyclable, pizza boxes of recyclable cardboard being trashed?

What sort of message are we giving here? Is Missouri the "who cares" state?

[Bryan Herbst]

I agree for the most part.
But at the same time, shouldn't the venue be prepared for such a large volume of trash? It doesnt make littering right, but it cuts of the issue of teams choosing to litter at its source.

The venue was indeed underprepared for the volume of trash (and recycling!) that we generated. Next year, they need more trash receptacles and they need to me more visible.

The lack of trash and recycling bins does not excuse this though. I am sure that even if a team could not find an empty trash can, they could at least go a little out of their way to find a garbage bag to fill until they found a more appropriate container.

[torihoelscher]

I saw a trash tornado before the concert, it was kind of ironic. Saturday morning I saw half eaten pizzas and etc that it looked like the bugs started to eat it. Kind of disgusting to me. lol.

[DonRotolo]

* gets off soap box and puts on flame suit *No flame suit necessary. I'm there with 'ya.
The venue was indeed underprepared for the volume of trash (and recycling!) that we generated. Next year, they need more trash receptacles and they need to me more visible.Indeed, this was one of my biggest complaints.

On the other hand, mentors should set a better example. Unfirtunately I fear that the mentors who permitted this are not members of CD and may never know just how disappointing they were.

[keehun]

An announcement on opening ceremony would go a long way

[Andrew Schreiber]

I seem to remember some pretty prominent signs about littering resulting in fines all around the city. Just saying...

If I have offended anyone, I'm sorry. It's a pet peeve of mine about litter.

* gets off soap box and puts on flame suit *

Amen brother.

[Mr V]

The litter problem was caused by the management of the facility to blame it on the students is un-fair. To suggest that students should have carried the trash through the entire concert and back to the hotel to shift the burden of disposal and associated costs to them is insane. Carrying it into the facility and piling it up inside would certainly have been a better choice though.

WE paid for better service than we received. The facility received big bucks for the rental that was paid for through our registration fees. They also received big bucks from the "royalty", a portion of the vendors gross take, from our food purchases.

For the garbage at the concert FIRST should take some of the blame there as well as they left many w/o any option but to eat at the facility due to the way they waited so long to announce it and then had teams playing and working in the pits until so near the time when the doors opened for the concert.

If the facility management was on the ball they would have been monitoring the waiting crowd and then when the saw that they had inadequate trash cans should have had their crew out there with the large bins used to collect the trash from the cans and kept up with the trash generation.

So if the FIRST VIPs were appalled they need to look at the root cause of the problem the poor service the facility provided and the lack of communication on their part.

I'm not saying littering is right just that there were no good alternatives provided and that was not a fault of those attending the concert.

[Wayne Doenges]

I thought I would resurrect this thread to remind everyone that you are just visiting St. Louis and to please pack out your trash.

Thank you

This has been a Public Service Announcement.

Now go have fun :D

[rsisk]

Thanks Wayne, couldn't have said it better myself.

[Wayne Doenges]

I thought I would resurrect this thread to remind everyone that you are just visiting St. Louis and to please pack out your trash.

Thank you

This has been a Public Service Announcement.

Now go have fun :D
Bumped as a reminder.
Last year was much better. Still trash missing the cans but much better than 2011.

[lpickett]

As a mentor, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, I would hope I have taught the younger generation to cleanup after themselves. I am a born and raised Missourian and was appalled to hear of the trash. I do not blame the venue, it was a learning experience for them with the type of activity we presented. I fault those who don't respect others to leave an area the same or better than when they found it. I always pick up trash I see and dispose of it. We also carry trash bags with us in the stands to pick up after ourselves to relieve the maintenance people of work. It is common courtesy to not leave a mess for someone else.