The University is taking steps to address the North Campus trash problem, but it’s still going to come down to people doing the right thing:

The university plans to distribute 12,000 trash bags in parking lots and around campus this Saturday before the Georgia Bulldogs play host to the Arizona State Sun Devils in a 7 p.m. kickoff. Volunteers from the Fellowship of Christian Athletes will walk through tailgating areas distributing trash bags and encouraging tailgaters to bag their trash and deposit it in an appropriate receptacle. The number of disposable trash boxes on North Campus will be increased to 400 from the previous 250, and over the entire campus to 1,500 from the previous 1,200. Several large roll-off dumpsters will be placed strategically around campus for tailgaters to dispose of their bagged trash.

Additionally, the firm that contracts to clean the campus on Sundays following a football game – American Stadiums – will send crews on an initial sweep through North Campus during the first quarter of remaining games this season to pick up trash already collected and set aside by tailgaters.

The number of Port-a-Johns available on campus also will be increased, particularly in the North Campus area, which has been problematic.

Those are necessary and welcome actions – there really won’t be much excuse for people not to clean up after themselves. You can be certain that every media outlet is standing by to do a story on the state of campus come Sunday morning, and a lack of significant improvement will just bring more scrutiny and tighter restrictions.

The real test of these measures will come the following week when LSU visits. Fortunately that’s a 3:30 kickoff. Arizona State will be a decent first run, but it should be a lower-key tailgate than South Carolina or LSU especially if the predicted rain materializes this weekend.