THROWING a candy wrapper into the wastebasket may be the most trivial thing you do (some don’t even bother to throw them in a disposal bin). But the candy wrapper may hold a few dirty secrets about you.
Such is garbology, the study of a society—its behavior, lifestyle or culture (and dirty secrets)—through its garbage. And, boy, do I have some interesting hypotheses about the Thomasian lifestyle!
Although I am no expert garbologist, and my inferences are merely half-guesses—unintelligent—I went around the campus trying to study its garbage heaps.
Thomasians have a generally sweet tooth as I found plenty of Dewberry tart or Maxx/Halls candy wrappers and some softdrink plastic cups.
Plain, unbranded styrofoam packs stuff almost all garbage bins, indicating that many Thomasians bring food bought from wherever into their classrooms.
There are many vendo coffee cups laying under the garbage lid, but there are few H2Go distilled water bottles, a sign that either Thomasians buy more coffee than water or UST students don’t buy their distilled water from the infamous money-devouring vendo machines.
The list of junk goes on. Thomasians sure are a wasteful lot.
However, garbology does not only deal with the kind or amount of trash there is; it also considers where they are left or thrown.
And, yes, recyclable trash are not where they are supposed to be. They are scattered around, piled with composting junk. Styrofoam containers find their way to the “recycle” bin. Convenient isn’t it?
Well, it isn’t, since our custodians have to segregate the garbage again. Although they can make a living out of the garbage heaps around campus, you could have made work light for them in the first place. It’s easy to infer that some Thomasians lack discipline in disposing their garbage. No crap.
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Speaking of garbage, the “dogs” out to oust the President have followed a garbage track directly to Malacañang’s front door.
And although UST has been relatively quiet about the political crisis despite the loud banging outside the España gate in the past few weeks, most Thomasians, save for a few trash-mongers, no longer want to get their hands dirty with so much political garbage being flung around.
It’s sad to know that if someone actually digs through our country’s “trash” one day, they would find our dirty little secrets more than appalling. So, my advice is, “Clean up, for good!” (Or just clean it up good.)
