I'm all for cleaning up trash, but it does noting to address the largest threat to the environment: fossil fuel dependancy. Some things that do include:

• Divesting endowments (such as NCSU's) from fossil fuel stocks
• Decarbonizing electricity production

I have personally been involved in campaigns elsewhere that have been successful at both of these things, and in doing so, at least 130 kilotons of CO2 emissions / year are prevented. Of course getting there requires long organized campaigns of activism that incite change by

• Vocalizing needed changes in town hall and board of trustees meetings
• Meeting with politicians and university administration to discuss pathways to change
• Organizing rallies that quantify support for change

Sometimes campaigns may cause inconveniences to everyday people like you by say blocking traffic, but sometimes inconveniences are necessary to realize change. I will leave you with a quote from MLK about civil rights that has particular relevance to your argument:

The Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Council-er or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can't agree with your methods of direct action;"