Kirkland Begins War on Trash

The masters and superintendent of Kirkland House have taken enough garbage--and now they're fighting back.

In an attempt to make the house a "pleasant, safe and attractive place to live" and maintain its spiffy appearance after $5 million of renovations last year, K-House Master Donald H. Pfister recently informed Kirkland residents that from now on, messy hallways will not be tolerated.

Specifically, Pfister announced that door-to-door pickup of trash will be discontinued. Instead, students will be provided with waste baskets and plastic liners, and will empty them in cans outside their entryways. The cans will be serviced twice each day.

Also, by today, every suite is scheduled to have a new plastic trough screwed on the front door to receive Harvard Student Agencies advertisements, flyers, newspapers and other material that clutter up Kirkland's corridors.

"If students see a clean entryway there will be a tendency for them to do less damage," said superintendent Kevin Higgins, who said damage in past years--but not this year--has been severe.

And what if you don't comply? Higgins said hard-core slobs will be castigated, even getting conscience-tugging notices tacked on their front doors.

"We're not saving any money from these changes," said Higgins. In addition to buying wastebaskets, the House also has to shell out a nickel for every plastic liner, he said.

Trash Clash

How do Kirkland residents feel about the new beautification drive?

House Committee Chairman Angela Ferry '86 said she thinks the new plastic newspaper troughs are the "the best thing they've [K-House Officials] ever done.

But one Kirkland resident who asked not to be iden- tified said she knows of two rooms where the receptacles have been knocked off the door.

The woman, who lives on the fourth floor, also said she is annoyed that she will have to walk all the way downstairs to get rid of her trash. As a result, she predicts that "the hallway might be cleaner, but the room will not be."

Scott M. Amero '85 said be doesn't think the trash problem is so bad that it merits the expense of the new system, but many other residents interviewed acknowledged that the hallways have needed a drastic Spring Cleaning.

"The trash was out of control--I think [the plan] is great," said Ferry