Halloween proves to be a ‘trashy’ weekend

by Mike Cottrill

When Ohio University sophomore Amy Johnson woke up the Sunday morning after Halloween, her room was in shambles.

“It was disgusting,” Johnson said. “There was trash all over the room, and I couldn’t even walk around. I think we ended up making four trips to the dumpster just to get it all out.”

Johnson’s story is pretty common after Halloween weekend, one of the biggest trash hauling times said Mark Whitney, OU Facilities Management director of grounds, recycling, and refuse.

The mess was so big that he had his staff working extra hours.

“We had extra groundskeepers out until about two in the morning both nights,” Whitney said. “We kept one on each green just to make sure everything was as clean as possible. Aside from move-in and move-out weekend, this is the only time our crew has to work such long hours.”

Not only did the staff have to clock in for a few extra hours, but they also had many different trash and recycling pickups for the weekend, said Ed Newman, a member of the OU Facilities Management staff.

“We usually only have one trash truck come in a weekend,” Newman said. “But we had one come Friday and Saturday night just to hold us over until Monday.”

The amount of the trash piling up in the trash bins was not all bad however. Newman noted there was also an increase in on campus recycling this year.

“On any normal weekend we have to bring in one recycling truck on Monday,” he said. “But this Monday we had to have three full truckloads. That’s more than we really expected.”

This added recycling was something that the Facilities Management staff was quite happy about.

“Although we weren’t thinking we would have that much, that’s a real pleasant surprise. It’s good to see that people care enough to recycle on such a busy weekend,” Newman said.

Even with all the added trash and recyclables on the weekend the staff still was right on their usual schedule on Monday morning. This is something that they attribute to long planning for the big weekend.

“We are able to forecast how many people will be here,” Whitney said. “So we are able to have all of our staff in the right place at the right time.”