Trash and Education

Without getting too deep into ideas and hypotheses I don't know enough about, one of the fundamentals of microeconomics is that incentives matter. As makes perfect sense, people tend to do things that give them the best payoff or the least pain. I know even less about psychology or sociology, but when it comes to how we act, I feel that incentives tend to matter as well: we tend to do what is easiest, best for us, hurts others the least, and hurts us the least as well. Obviously, what we're taught and told to do affects us, but a big part of my belief is that the incentives of profit and pain play a big part in what we choose to do. One curious example that I've noticed in my new high school has to do with trash. 

Being one of the biggest tourist destinations in the world and a developing country that is doing a pretty good job of developing, I'm sure that there are huge swathes of Costa Rica that don't have much litter. Unfortunately for me, I haven't spent much time in those places. Liverpool, Limón is most definitely not one of those places. The stretch of land I most often see-the road between my house and the school/pulpería-is lined with litter. And, just maybe, this has to do with what people learn when they are young. Sadly, what they learn and what they're taught is not the same thing. And this is because of the incentives that go along with the teaching.  

(the left side of the road is what the side of most of the roads in my town look like)

I will say, the elementary school teachers do a pretty good job of encouraging students to put trash in the trash cans-and they also have to pick up trash-thus realizing that even if they litter, they might end up having to pick it up in the end. The high school, though, is another story. From 7th-11th grade, students are given a much more mixed message. I haven't seen a teacher (except myself) reprimand a student for littering. I only observe the English teacher, and she has mentioned once or twice to students not to throw trash on the ground. What is most often done by the students is to put the trash in the desks-this avoids the oh so burdensome task of walking to the trash can but also avoids dropping it on the floor, which the teacher might see and might correct. These desks house different students every period, so plenty of trash builds up during the day. I don't think I've ever seen a student take out the trash at the end of a period. Lots of students do just throw it on the floor, because most of the time there's seldom a penalty for it. 

Now, in many places in the world leaving trash on the floor would build up into piles, and leaving it in the desk would cause an uproar from the student in the next period. Yet, at my high school, and at Puerto Viejo, and I imagine many other schools in Costa Rica, this doesn't happen. That's because (far too many in my opinion) janitors sweep up rooms after every few periods. Before they sweep though, they walk through the rows of desks and tip them all over-spilling all the trash stuffed into the desk during the previous periods. This constant sweeping of the classrooms, as well as the hallways-they even sweep up bits of trash around the campus. I could be wrong, but I think that this constant clean up has two detrimental effects. First, I think it makes it look like it's not a problem to throw things on the ground, because the students know that it will get cleaned up. Almost like the concept it to throw it on the floor and let the frequent cleaning clean it up. Secondly, it prevents the accumulation of trash all over the place so that no one sees the real effect of littering (it's crystal clear the minute you step off the high school grounds). It's clear to see the problem in the second effect, but not so much in the first. Some might say, why not just have the janitors constantly cleaning up. My problem with this system is it's super inefficient. Every student could just throw the trash in the trash cans, and they'd get cleaned out once a day or so. Obviously, stringent reprimanding (and punishment) of students for littering could solve this problem. Or fewer janitors/a change in the cleaning method. As labor laws are very tight in Costa Rica, I'll bet the former has a better chance of success-yet I'll still hope for a combination.