By his own estimate, Daniel Toben, a junior in mechanical engineering, has removed the equivalent of more than 420 bags of garbage from campus and the surrounding areas.  

What began as an effort to pick up trash along walkways earlier this year, has continued and expanded through the summer.

“I started in late February.  This summer was when I really started cleaning up Central Campus and the woods,” Toben said.  

Among other areas, Toben has cleaned up around Miller Field, Lee Field and Wood Hall.  

“I started [by] always going to the nearest place I could,” Toben said.  “I was living in Bragaw over the summer.

For Toben, cleaning up around campus consumes a significant amount of his time.  

“I’ve really like it… I’ve been doing this as my hobby,” Toben said.  “It’s a good complement to what student (volunteers) do and campus employees.”

Toben said he chooses to clean areas that he thinks will benefit the most from his work.

“I pick the places based on what I think are the nice looking places on campus,” Toben said.

And he’s not always alone.  Matt Pace, a junior in biological and agricultural engineering, said he helped Toben on two separate occasions.

“I didn’t do very much compared to what Daniel did,” Pace said.  “He’s been going out eight hours a day or so.  He called and asked me to take a bunch of trash he got out to the landfill.”

The volume Toben collected was surprising, Pace said.

“The first time we took like 36 [bags of trash],” Pace said.

Although he has received help from a few other people, Toben works mainly as an individual. But he said he is reaching the limit of what he can do by himself.

“I’ve got about two more weeks until I finish the area I’m working on. Within two weeks I will have cleaned up the area within walking distance [of my apartment],” Toben said.  

Adam Culley, an assistant director for the Center for Student Leadership, Ethics and Public Service, said he had not heard of a student doing a project like this before.  However, he has seen students do similar work on a smaller scale.

But things might change if Toben expands his project in the coming months through recruiting and focusing on new locations.

 ”I’ve been told that I should form a club… I would like to continue with [the help of] a club, a fraternity, or some group,” Toben said. “I want to check about cleaning up the railroad; but, I’m not sure of that would be possible or safe.”

Will Hooker, a professor of horticulture, said he has also assisted Toben with moving trash to the land fill.

“I don’t know him that well, but I’m amazed that he took this thing on,” Hooker said.  “He [cleaned an area] two separate weekends and it just amazed me that he kept going until it was cleaned up.  [One] weekend, he filled up 40 or 50 trash bags.”

“He is committed to service and to reducing his ecological footprint… That is my sense, watching the way he operates,” Hooker said.