Leaving St. Augustine Squeaky Clean

By Kendall Greco

Gearing up with their gloves and trash bags, the Down to Earth club at Flagler College partnered up with Phi Alpha Omega, Alpha Sigma Alpha, and Lambda Chi to spruce up Lincolnville with their community cleanup. These organizations on campus share a passion for sustainability and keeping the community beautiful. 

In past years, Down to Earth has done beach cleanups at St. Augustine’s Vilano location as well as downtown cleanups, both being successful events. When thinking of their next steps to success, Down to Earth club began brainstorming new locations to leave in pristine condition. 

Flagler College student and Down to Earth Secretary Gemma Hansen thought Lincolnville deserved some love and attention. “Lincolnville has such a rich history and is an important part of St. Augustine, but I believe here there are not as many environmental initiatives made for that area. So, we wanted to focus on making a notable impact,” Hansen said. 

While walking along the streets of Lincolnville there weren’t just plastic bottles and wrappers, there were some notable pieces as well. Lambda Chi member Collin Burt found something quite disturbing: “The most gross thing I had to pick up was a used condom. I felt that it was very disrespectful to see peoples disgusting litter in a city. Lincolnville has such history and culture and should remain beautiful,” Burt said. 

A lot of the trash scattered around historic Lincolnville were the type that cannot be broken down. Such pieces include milk cartons, plastic water bottles, plastic soda holders, etc. Depending on what type of plastic it is, it can take up to 20-500 years for plastic to decompose. Even then, the plastic does not fully disappear, it then turns to microplastics. These microplastics can be very harmful to our environment and wildlife. Student volunteers even reported seeing used drug needles pushed into the grass and on the streets. They took the initiative to discard of them so that Lincolnville’s kids, as well as beloved stray cats, don’t get hurt. 

After purging the town and leaving it nice and shiny, all the clubs put their trash together to see how they did. More than 10 full trash bags were reported to be the result of the clean up. “The amount of trash we picked up together was very inspiring to motivate us to take action forward and to encourage others to join in helping our community,” Hansen said.