Green Unity cleans up ‘Hell Block’

Green Unity, an organization focusing on making VCU and the Richmond community more environmentally conscious, held its second clean up of the area known as “Hell Block” Sunday.

The 1100 block of West Grace Street got its reputation because it is host to many college students and is known as a central party spot in Richmond.

“Hell Block is like party central around campus and there is not a lot of landlord support for this area,” said Green Unity President Brantley Tyndall, an environmental science major. “It’s so close to campus and so close to other cultural centers of Richmond that I think it should be appreciated and taken care of.”

The sidewalks are constantly filled with trash because of all the parties.

“There are no trash cans (on Hell Block) and people just don’t give a crap,” said Andrew Alli, a member of Green Unity and an environmental studies major. “If there was a recycling plan here, it would probably help a lot, but it’s people partying a lot and they don’t care when they’re drunk.”

Green Unity member Scott Miller agreed with Alli.

“It’s young people partying that are drunk (and apartments that) are low rent and low quality,” Miller said.

Green Unity is trying to adopt Hell Block, which entails cleaning it up a minimum of four times a year.

“We have to do (cleanups) at least twice a semester,” Tyndall said. “This place gets dirty really fast.”

Not all the trash Green Unity’s members pick up is typical.

“We found 40s full of urine, a rotting couch, a crate of rotting eggs, a car stereo,” Tyndall said. “We found broken televisions, lots of interesting things.”

Tyndall is working on a way to communicate with students about how to party without harming the environment.

“We are kind of toying with the idea of how to party green, as in which kind of containers to buy your alcohol in and what to do with them afterwards,” Tyndall said. “Since we know that this is a party-prone area, after we adopt the street we are going to put some Green Unity recycling bins out for people.”

Tyndall says awareness is important to the organization.

“We are trying to reach out into the community,” Tyndall said. “We want students to pay attention to the environment and their actions.”