Added trash cans along bayou’s banks may keep ULM clean

Walking on the bridge across Bayou Desiard can be a beautiful scene, until one sees the amount of trash that litters the water. While there are benches along the bayou for students to sit, study and eat lunch, trash receptacles are hard to find, leading to individuals littering the banks with notebook paper, plastic from their lunches and drink cans, which end up floating in the water.

In an effort to promote the importance of the bayou, the Toxicology Department usually holds a bayou cleanup once a semester, which is open to all students and members of the community who wish to volunteer their time to help keep the campus beautiful.

“We plan to organize another bayou clean up on campus,” said Mr. Shannon Banks of the Toxicology department.

The toxicology department last held a cleanup in April 2011 along with Tau Omicron Chi, a professional and social club for toxicology majors. Banks encouraged students who were concerned with the condition of the bayou to take the initiative to pick up debris on their own.

“The more times we clean it up, the better,” Banks said.

Some students believe that the administration should be more proactive in the measures taken for the preservation of the waterway that runs through our campus.

“I think the university should provide more trash cans on campus and start using recycling bins to keep the bayou and the environment clean,” said Morgan Batten, a sophomore nursing major from West Monroe. Batten was also concerned for the well being of wildlife that inhabit Bayou Desiard and its surroundings.

Banks said the next Bayou Cleanup will be in October at the earliest.