On Nov. 2, members of the South Brunswick High School environmental club, SBEarth, conducted a litter pickup around the school.
By Kelly Mascarenhas, sophomore, Viking Vibe Staff
On Nov. 2, members of the South Brunswick High School environmental club, SBEarth, conducted a litter pickup around the school.
After Halloween, they expected there to be a lot of candy wrappers left around the school and in adjacent neighborhoods as the high school itself had hosted its annual Spooktacular six days before the litter pickup.
SBEarth members reported that not only did the club find cigarette butts and boxes not two feet from the building, but one beer bottle in the senior parking lot, clothes, and a mouth guard scattered around the campus.
Science teacher Jane Rothfuss, the club’s advisor, was dismayed because, “there were coffee cups (left) the very next morning from the SAT kids in the staff parking lot.”
Thus, this litter pickup revealed to the club the overall earth-conscious attitude of some members of the school.
”The litter pickup shows that students at our own school do not entirely understand the negative effects of (not) recycling,” Senior Pallavi Velagapudi, president of SBEarth, said. “ Some of the items we found are very simple to recycle and it’s somewhat disappointing that people cannot take the few seconds it takes to throw it into the proper can.”
Asked if SBEarth could fix this attitude, she replied, “Yes, by simply creating awareness, and (seeing) the effects of our current actions. The best way is to spread word by mouth.”
The cleanup was featured in the fall parent newsletter, with the last line of the article stating, “Hopefully the entire SBHS community will support our terrific building and grounds in keeping our campus attractive and litter-free.”
In order for this to happen, SBEarth has to reach out to the entire SBHS community, as Ms. Velagapudi said.
On the same day, SBEarth also picked up litter around the neighborhood of Tamaron Hollow.
”There were many sparklers left on the edges of streets from the celebration of Diwali,” senior Nisha Sanghani said, who is SBEarth’s executive officer, “By cleaning it up, we have fulfilled our social responsibility in creating a safer and more beautiful place to live in.”
That was not the only positive effect the litter pickup had on the neighborhood.
”There were a lot of newspapers in the gutters,” Sanghani continued, “Our cleaning has now allowed for rainwater to pass through more easily.”
In addition to this cleanup, the students of SBEarth also take an annual field trip to Sandy Hook beach to take part in the Clean Ocean Action beach cleanup, and also maintain a section of Ridge Road every spring.
These cleanups are a good opportunity for service hours, and SBEarth welcomes anyone to come to these events.
The environmental club’s main agenda this year is to improve the school’s recycling and composting process in the school cafeteria and to install bird feeders in the school courtyards. Working with the Plainsboro Preserve, SBEarth members will also begin to learn more about bird species and bird watching.
Then, they will send data about the different species they have observed to the Cornell University Lab of Ornithology as part of a citizen-science project.
The ivy league university, located in Ithaca, New York, tracks the long-term changes in bird populations nationwide based on a variety of environmental factors including acid rain, habitat loss, disease, and much more.

