OPINION: Homecoming is a waste
Masses of bags filled with flowers litter the cafeteria.
Homecoming was a week ago, but the enormity of the waste from the event can still be seen. Though a treasured high school tradition, homecoming is a waste of time and resources.
A major event of homecoming is float making. These floats, consisting of wood frames and tissue paper flowers, create an enormous amount of trash. According to SCHS ASB President Sofia Kritikopoulos, the floats are 75% covered in paper flowers with one ream of tissue paper producing around 100 flowers, and several garbage bags full of flowers are needed to cover each float. The paper’s only purpose is to be paraded around for a day before it ends up in a landfill.
Although the paper will decompose in around a month and the plywood in one to three years, the environmental impact will last far longer. Though they are the largest, the floats are not the only wasteful part of homecoming. The hallway decorations, posters, skit props and parade posters all create garbage.
In addition to producing copious amounts of trash, homecoming is a waste of money, between the cost of tissue paper, decorations, crowns and flowers, smoke machines and robotics parts. According to Kritikopoulos, the class’ councils spent an estimated combined $2,108 this year, money that could be better used for many other things that could benefit the student body as a whole.
With the festivities, rally and voting for homecoming court, students lose valuable class time for this uneducational tradition. This is time that could be better spent volunteering or having educational speakers.
This year, SCHS students spent approximately a combined 290 hours attending float parties, filming skits and painting posters. Though impressive, that time could have been spent in a more constructive manner. Classes could get together to build houses for Habitat for Humanity, or feed the hungry in soup kitchens. Students could spend their time helping others instead of creating unnecessary celebrations.
One cannot deny the teamwork and bonding opportunities that homecoming creates nor the impressive product that comes out of the culmination of time and resources. Despite this, homecoming has become outdated.
In a world where the threat of global warming looms over everyone’s shoulders and an inevitable market collapse could make extra funds obsolete, homecoming is a frivolous waste. Homecoming could be replaced with any number of things. Or at the very least, homecoming should be made more environmentally conscious by not building floats.
