It’s the end of the semester which means there are piles of confetti across campus that were left by a senior ready to start the next chapter of their life.
There’s one problem with this. There’s no reason there should be piles of confetti scattered across campus.
This is because the people who are ready to start their adult lives are still expecting someone else to clean up after them.
After the confetti is left someone else who probably isn’t as privileged as you has to go behind you and clean it up. All for a single photo that you’ll post on Instagram and forget about in a couple of years.
When you do this you are littering. You are leaving your personal garbage on the ground because you didn’t think you had to clean up after yourself.
It’s not exactly easy to get confetti out of grass so at the very least opt for an area with concrete and bring something to sweep it up with yourself after you’re finished. It’s the least you could do to make the lives of the people who kept this campus clean for you for the last four years easier.
Beyond the problem of leaving your mess for someone else to clean up there is also an environmental impact. So even if you will at least clean up after yourself, you still shouldn’t use confetti in your pictures.
Confetti can get into the drainage systems, some which empty out right into waterways. From there animals can eat the confetti which can result in a depleting population.
For the ones that don’t go straight to drains, animals on the campus grounds can also eat it. A squirrels diet does not consist of plastic or paper confetti and eating it can cause severe damage.
There are plenty of ways to get nice graduation photos that don’t require something that inconveniences everyone and everything around you.
This also applies to biodegradable confetti. Even if it isn’t as bad for the environment, it’s still not great and you’re still leaving it around campus.
And if none of that can persuade you then just consider that a lot of people will look at those piles and think whoever did it was selfish.
The materially bad outcomes of using confetti in your pictures certainly outweigh any good.
This isn’t a call-out demanding that students only make decisions that aren’t bad for the environment, it’s just a request that you stop doing something that is objectively easy not to do.
