TU/e staff pick up kilos of litter

On Monday, TU/e employees can take part in four different volunteer activities during working hours as part of the TU/e lustrum celebrations, including a litter-picking walk. The volunteers spread out across campus, keeping their eyes on the ground as they walked along bike paths, walking paths, and grassy verges.

The walk was organized by Gina Makken from Troep Troopers, an initiative dedicated to cleaning up litter in Eindhoven. Based on her experience, volunteers collect an average of about 2.5 kilograms of trash per person in two hours.

In handfuls

“Is there even enough litter to pick up?” a colleague from Education and Student Affairs asked Robyn Huiting when she said she was going to participate. There is certainly enough: once you start paying attention, you realize just how much trash is scattered around the TU/e campus.

“Look, when I find a piece this big, I feel proud,” she says with a laugh, holding up a paper bag of a snack bar with her litter picker.

Hotspots

There is no set route, but the group splits in two: one group walks along the Dommel, while the other heads around the Markthal. From both starting points, the volunteers spread out.

During the first few meters, they struggle a little to get the hang of the litter pickers, but it does not take long for them to find their rhythm and start filling their bags.

From experience, Makken knows that there is often a lot of litter along the banks of the Dommel. “I once found a JBL speaker there,” she says. Asked whether she has come across any other unusual items, she replies: “A rocking horse, but also an office chair, underwear, socks, AirPods, and once a large knife.”

Between meetings

“I just came out of a meeting. Luckily, a colleague had saved a litter picker and a trash bag for me,” says Imanda Scholten-Kamstra, secretary at TU/e innovation Space.

She is the only volunteer with previous experience picking up litter. “When I deliver the neighborhood newsletter, I sometimes take a trash bag with me. Before you know it, you’ve filled an entire bag.”

Huiting probably will not limit her litter picking to this afternoon on campus, either. “I think I’ll spot all kinds of things lying around on my bike ride home, too,” she says.