“No matter where you’re littering, it all affects the world in the long run,” Mercer said.

To many students, residents and community members, issues with trash in the city have become more prevalent, causing some to take action in an attempt to create a change in culture.

Talking trash
The problem of trash complaints in the East Lansing community, particularly from party litter, has not gone unnoticed among city officials. Throughout the past year, Assistant City Manager Marie McKenna and other members of city staff have worked on drafting amendments to the party litter ordinance currently in place to garner a higher rate of compliance.

The ordinance currently in place allows residencies a warning, issued by a Parking and Code Enforcement, or PACE, officer, to clean up their properties within the next eight hours to avoid being ticketed.

Recently, members of city staff, along with other community members, have discussed a possible change to the current ordinance — one that would include a tiered fine system and an implied warning system, where cases of extreme party litter could be ticketed immediately, McKenna said.

The East Lansing City Council is scheduled to hold a public hearing to hear opinions on the proposed ordinance at its Tuesday meeting.

The motivations behind drafting amendments to the ordinance largely came from community feedback and data collected during the past year, McKenna said. She said more than 600 warnings were distributed last year, but only 10 tickets actually were issued.

“It has been suggested through conversation that in order to have a real impact on the worst, most chronic litterers, we really have to have a pretty stiff fine that hits the pocketbook,” McKenna said.

“We’re sort of in this position of having to moderate this issue and figure out how to bring folks into compliance through whatever means we can. … Unfortunately we don’t like to be the bad guy, (but) it’s just our role.”

Although it is not specified in the language of the proposed amended ordinance, a warning without a punitive financial cost will be issued on properties without repeat litter offenses, except in extreme cases, McKenna said.

Cleanup and reprimand
An excess of litter left in streets and yards of residents ultimately forces PACE officers such as Jose Estrada to take care of the problem.

For many officers, a typical day at work consists of enforcing parking and city codes through routine patrol and responding to violation complaints from residents in the community.

Estrada said it’s not always the residents who are responsible for excessive trash on their property — weather conditions and visiting parties could play a large role in the dispersion of litter. He said officers typically use their own discretion when deciding whether to issue a warning or ticket, and most officers are in-line with each other’s standards.

“Under the law, any trash is too much,” Estrada said. “We follow within a certain area of what is acceptable and what is not.”

According to Estrada, 90 percent or more of residents comply with warnings issued by PACE. However, he said some particular properties have received numerous warnings, making for numerous trips to the same residencies.

Although Mercer has received a few warnings himself in the few years that he has lived in East Lansing, he said he agrees that students and non-student residents alike need to put more effort into keeping the community clean.

“I don’t agree with littering. I think it’s a really lazy human habit and it just destroys a lot of things,” Mercer said.

Kicked to the curb
Though people always don’t realize the extent to which their discarded trash affects the city and other residents, litter in neighborhoods poses serious environmental issues.

East Lansing Director of Public Works Todd Sneathen said the Department of Public Works and Environmental Services provides solid waste services to single family residential properties, along with cleaning up litter and trash in streets, parking ramps and medians in the downtown area in order to promote a clean community.

“When people don’t clean up trash in their yard, it can blow into the street or neighbors’ yards,” Sneathen said. “It’s up to the homeowners or residents to take care of their property.”

David Fried, a member-at-large of the University Student Commission — a city group meant to foster communication between students and residents of the city — said students who live in the neighborhoods should learn to pick up after themselves and be responsible for their actions.

“It shouldn’t be the case that they need to be parented by the city and be told to pick up their litter,” Fried said. They should just be able to do it, but it’s not happening.”

Another concern of the community was whether or not students actually were aware of city ordinances and how education should be a major step in ensuring the success of the proposed ordinance.

“I think we really have to address this issue of really not being aware of ordinances in a way that is really more structurally systematic in this community,” said East Lansing resident and Community Relations Coalition member John Melcher.

Rising concerns
Some of the changes detailed in the proposed ordinance amendments to curb party litter have been disconcerting to representatives of student groups.

Steve Marino, external vice chairman for the Student Assembly of ASMSU, MSU’s undergraduate student government, said many students were finding concern with the lack of an initial warning written into the proposed ordinance. He said most ASMSU representatives were aware of issues with the ordinance currently in place but felt a lack of a warning in the code could give officers too much discretion.

“We do recognize that it has to be more punitive, but please keep the warning system in there,” Marino said.

Interfraternity Council President Dan Tratt said representatives of MSU’s fraternities believed the lack of time structure in the proposed ordinance might cause problems in the future since it is not clarified properly. He suggested an adoption of specific times for residents to complete cleanup on their properties to generate more compliance with the ordinance.

The ordinance was a step in the right direction for East Lansing, but more action needs to be taken, psychology freshman Michelle Feghali said.

“When people come (to East Lansing), they don’t want to see a bunch of trash,” Feghali said.