Cleaning Up "The Strip"

Attention University of Alabama game day tailgaters,

On a game day weekend, starting Friday afternoon, the town of Tuscaloosa goes right into tailgating fever. Tents go up, the population rises, and the excitement begins. Students, fans, and alumni all flock to “The Strip,” which is located on University Boulevard, to begin celebrating football season. The game day business is great for the University, bars, restaurants, and memorabilia stores located on The Strip, however, the trash left by fans on the road is not. Thus, due to the excess trash and the lack of recycling problems arise. Placing more recycling and trash bins along The Strip, and labeling them appropriately, could easily fix these problems.

Though there are a few trash bins located all down The Strip, evidently they are not enough for all the trash that fans accumulate on a game day weekend. “It is a constant job,” stated one of the City of Tuscaloosa waste workers. He also said that the bins fill up so quickly that people just throw their trash on the ground because there is no point in putting a cup, plate, or can on top of the mound of other trash because it will just fall out. One fan actually said, “it’s easier to just throw it on the ground because when you’re walking with a drink in your hand you can’t really find a trash can that isn’t full or by the time you finish your drink there is no where you can throw it away. So it’s just easier to toss it on the ground.”

On a weekend when there is not a football game, pedestrians can walk down The Strip and witness noticeably cleaner streets and sidewalks. However, when the Crimson Tide football team has a home football game, this vastly changes. Outside of the most popular bar on The Strip, Gallettes, all the trash bins are full to the top, and usually spilling over, so pedestrians are somewhat forced to throw their trash on the side of the road. Not only does this cause our beautiful campus, and the most popular part of our town, to look like a filthy street in New York City, but it also makes the stores on The Strip to look uninviting.

A new bar on The Strip, The BearTrap, located on top of Buffalo Phil’s, is owned by a young man named Adrian Leach. Upon talking to him about how the game day trash affects his business his response was not too cavalier. He stated that even though his bar does not face The Strip, the main entrance, which is located behind Buffalo Phil’s, constantly has trash surrounding it on game days. He even has to go to the extent of hiring workers to walk around and pick up the trash around his bar so that it does not look like someone knocked over a dumpster outside of his business and possibly turn away customers. The same goes for the memorabilia stores found right next to Buffalo Phil’s; it is completely trashed during game days. One man actually walks around with a garbage bag picking up cans to recycle, or whatever else he may find, due to the limited space in the overflowing bins.

While there might be some bins along the strip, and the City of Tuscaloosa, workers strive to keep the bins emptied. Unfortunately, there are just not enough bins to accommodate the amount of trash made by thousands of people on game days. Also, even though it is the responsibility of the owners of the stores, bars, and restaurants on The Strip to keep their businesses looking clean, there is only so much that the owners can do when fans insist on trashing the vicinity due to lack of proper trash bins.

Although the limited number of bins and space for our trash is the main cause of this problem on campus, we could help solve it also by more wisely labeling bins and better advertising the need to recycle. If we have a sufficient amount of space for our waste, labeling it would allow people to know where to place their garbage. The largest problem with recycling, especially on campus, is that it is not properly advertised enough. Also, some people may have the intention of recycling, but when it is unclear of where it should be put, it might not be worth the effort, especially on game days.

Keeping the campus beautiful should be a number one priority. We take pride in the way we show our spirit and should keep this in mind. More trash bins located on The Strip would eliminate many problems, and would be a good investment. Not only would it minimize the work the trash collectors would have to do when it comes to hand picking up trash on the side of the road, but it would also help tremendously on the amount of trash lying around making our gorgeous campus look like a junkyard. It would help in more than just making sure The Strip looks nice on a game day weekend, it would also help out in everyday action The Strip receives.

(Group 4)