Very few would think that CBNU sports a clean and pleasant environment around it.  Try walking around Joongmoon area after dark without running into empty coffee cups, cigarette butts, or other abominations.  The streets are very, VERY dirty.  It’s not something that’s happening recently, nor is it a problem unique to our school.  So why bring it up now?  Because I think this is a microcosm of bigger social problems that we actually care, and how we fail to address them.  Here, let me consider this issue with a few questions and answers, through which I hope we can get some hints toward a solution, at least.
  First and foremost, why wouldn’t more people raise issues with this?  I’m guessing that (at least some) people may not feel bothered with such messiness in their environment for various reasons.  But even they may not explicitly experience any unpleasantness, environmental disorder can still inflict stress upon people unconsciously and undermine their overall wellbeing.  And as the famous “broken window hypothesis” attests, environmental disorder can lead to perception of less compliance of social norms, and thus make people more likely to engage in unlawful behavior.
  If the discussion so far is valid, there must be something to be done about this problem.  But by whom?  Who has the responsibility for this problem?  Before we even think about this question, what do we mean by ‘responsibility’ in this context anyway?  Does it mean cleaning up what others have left behind?  Or not dirtying shared space in the first place?  Is the responsibility attributed to the agent individually or collectively?  What are the consequences of neglecting the responsibility?  Of course (or rather, surprisingly), there are no immediate, ready-made answers to these questions.  Still, how we agree to answer these questions will have important implications on what kinds of solutions would be viable.
  So what would be the possible solutions that are both practical and effective?  We should first acknowledge that tired and worn-out solutions that rely solely on people’s conscience and integrity wouldn’t go very far.  That is, we need to think of solutions that are radically different from what have been tried and failed.  For example, people may be throwing things away not because they are mean, but rather because they simply don’t know where the trash bins are.  So maybe more signs that tell people where to dispose of trash might just work.  Another approach is to make it more difficult for people to loiter on the street, as it is often those who stay for a long time in the same place that would leave refuse there.  Or, we can use “public shaming” strategy and post pictures of litterers (with faces blurred) on public websites, to raise public consciousness on the issue.
  But why bother?  You may think of this as a relatively minor problem, but it may be a barometer of how we approach other, graver issues as members of this society, or the starting point of how we decide to solve those issues.  If we are to eventually take on those bigger issues – and we have no shortage of them – proactively, we should first learn to be able to take care with these seemingly simpler “pet peeves.”