Trash Club

I was walking across my office building this week, carrying my trash can to empty into the dumpster into the parking lot, when a very specific memory struck me:

Wednesday night Trash Club.

I went to a small, private college in Massachusetts, and like most small schools, we had our own strange traditions and culture. For the most part, the culture was fairly standard for New England – a little starchy and a lot sarcastic, powered by Dunkin Donuts and snow tires. Most people found their “group” pretty quickly – the lacrosse players stuck together in one dorm, the science nerds in another. Pretty much what you would expect. But there were a few corners of campus culture that were exceptions, and to this day those still fascinate me.

One of them was Trash Club.

This was a group of students who, every Wednesday evening, would walk through the dorms, carrying giant garbage bags, making lots of noise, yelling, laughing, and generally making a ruckus. They would call out, “TRASH CLUB! BRING OUT YOUR TRASH!” as they paraded down the hallways. You could hear them coming from two floors down, giving you time to collect your trash.

They strolled by, you handed them your trash, and they went on.

The funny thing is, our trash bins were in the dorm basements. To my recollection, no dorm was more than five stories tall. Which meant that we were never more than five flights of stairs away from throwing away our trash. And yet, we always scrambled when we heard Trash Club coming. We loved that they existed.

And to my knowledge, Trash Club was entirely run by students, had no rules other than “Walk around with us and take people’s trash” and existed only to serve others.

What a bizarre way to spend your time in college, right?

But I still remember it, because it felt so incredibly helpful. And kind. And odd. Almost unnecessary.

Which makes me wonder: why do we feel like we can only help people with their needs? I didn’t need Trash Club. But I loved and appreciated Trash Club.

We ask people, “Do you need help?” If they can handle it themselves, do it themselves, we don’t usually even think to offer assistance. That’s a gross generalization, of course, but I’m wondering: where did we get the idea that our help has to be needed to be welcome?

And how can I be part of Trash Club now?