Gatorade and water bottles, cans of soda, old newspapers and cereal boxes from trash bins across campus were piled four-feet high Sept. 27 in Memorial Plaza, emitting an attention-getting odor. For the Environmental Action Club, that was the idea.

“It makes an impression,” says Sam Renner ’07, who stopped to examine the pile. “There is a shock value here.”

Twenty students from the Environmental Action Club donned gloves to sort and compile the waste. They estimate students create 15,000 pounds of trash each weekend, and the exhibit aims to show students what that looks like.

“What better way to get people’s attention than with a huge pile of trash,” says Kate Chilson ’07, co-president of the club. “If people stop to look, we’ve achieved our goal.”

Clayton Rosa ’09 stopped to read signs posted around the trash pile.

“It’s always harder to change the little things you do unknowingly, like toss recycling in the trash when you don’t want to carry it to the right bin,” Rosa says.

Will he try to change old habits? Rosa says yes.

McDaniel’s Environmental Awareness week, which also featured tie-dye and demonstrations about making crafts out of trash, is based on the national Environmental Education week, held a week earlier.