On Sunday April 19th 2026, our chapter had the opportunity to partner with Garnier to promote sustainability and environmental awareness. Garnier sent us trash bags, rubber gloves, hand sanitizer, and trash grabbers to clean up trash around campus and in the town community. The sixteen of us that were able to make the event split up into four different groups and went along different routes through our campus and into town and filled up trash bags. My group alone made three bags, so I’d say we gathered around twelve bags of garbage to be recycled or thrown out. Although the weather could’ve been better, we made a little extra scavenger hunt for ourselves as we went along to add a little extra fun to it. This allowed us to create content to use for social media as well.
The purpose of this partnership was to encourage eco-friendly living and community beautification during Earth Month. Picking up trash helps the earth by preventing pollution, protecting wildlife, and reducing chemicals from entering the soil and water. Being in a college town, we unfortunately had a lot of trash to pick up. Younger people tend to be careless with their trash, and often just throw it out of their car or just blatantly throw it on their front lawns. During our clean up, we found everything from cigarettes, gum wrappers, clothes, to plastic, glass, and metal cans and bottles.
It is so important that we do our part to clean up the earth, because it is the only one we have. Trash and pollution are so harmful to the environment, and I feel like more people need to realize that. The problem with a lot of young, college-aged people is that they just assume that someone else will take care of it. Existing trash on the street makes it feel acceptable to just add more, and the laziness and lack of consequences also factor into things. Many young people may not fully understand the environmental consequences, such as the fact that cigarette butts are plastic and take years to decompose.
Lack of awareness may be the biggest factor in this issue, and by partnering with Garnier for this clean-up, we were able to help spread awareness. Especially this year, climate change is evident. These past few weeks have been a prime example. The temperature has been fluctuating anywhere from 40-80° F, and the average temperature for April in Pennsylvania is supposed to be around 50-60° F. The temperature had exceeded 80° F in just the second week in April, which is a record high. The rising temperatures are due to the damage we have already done to the planet from pollution and greenhouse gases, and more people need to be aware of that.
Overall, it was so great to get out in the community to give back and clean up with the club. Even in the rain, we persevered and made a difference in the community. While protecting the environment and our ecosystem, we hope to prevent further littering by highlighting the importance of environmental stewardship and inspiring others to act. We were able to make content to assist in promoting this message and initiative, as well as Garnier’s brand. Happy Earth Day from Her Campus at West Chester and Garnier!