Littering
Littering is a critical environmental issue in our surrounding. No one likes living in a dirty environment as litter has many negative effects. Apart from litter being a scenic pollutant it brings about numerous other negative effects such as health problem and injuries to human and animals. Litters are responsible for attracting bacteria and vermin which can result to diseases for people living around. Plastic and broken glasses can cause injuries both to human and animal. Wild animals such as bird may also ingest some of the small bits of plastic resulting to death (Anna, 2009).
From our litter experience we concluded that most of the litter that covering our surrounding is made up of recyclable items. Out of the total amount of litter that we collected approximately 70% was made up of plastic, papers and aluminum and glass. About 25% of our collected litter composed of aluminum waste. Our load of litter was made up of numerous used and discarded aluminum beverage cans. This cans are very recyclable through smelting and forming them a new. 30% of the collected waste was composed of plastic bottles and bags. Pet bottles, HDPE bottles used to package juices, water, milk and detergents and plastic bags used in wrapping commodities also formed a huge part of our litter collection. These items are also recyclable. Other items that contributed to a huge proportion of our collected litter were glass bottles. This formed 15 % of our total collection. Glass bottles are also recyclable. This is means that majority of the litter that taint the image of our environment can be put into good use. Only 30 percent of the trash we collected was not recyclable.
Very few people are innocent about littering. Most of the litter we collected seems to have been dropped of by pedestrian, people in moving vehicles or spilled over from uncovered pick up and garbage tracks. The largest percentage seems to be beverage cans and plastic bottle dropped of by moving motorist. Most people understand that litter has negative effects on the environment but they just over look this issue. Most of these people assume that it is just that one beverage can or juice bottle that they are throwing through their car window ignorant of the fact that, if few other people do the same it will lead to a littering hazard. In order to get rid of litter and make our environments clean and safe to live in every individual need to start acting responsibly. Everyone should dispose his or her garbage in the appropriate place and ensure that their environment remain litter free.
It is also important to educate the society on the advantages of prudent management of litter. One these advantages are economic advantage. Clean and litter free environment always attract investments and development (Cathy, 2009). Houses in clean neighborhood fetch good prices than houses in littered areas. Managing litter also present various economic opportunities. The recyclable beer and beverage cans attract a market value of 75¢ per pound. Plastic bottles have a scrap value of approximately 31.2¢ per pound while glass bottles have a scrap value of $ 40 per ton. By not littering using such recyclable items you not only keep your environment clean but you also get economic opportunities. By reducing litter we also reduce our chances of getting ill. By getting ill less often we save money in term of medical expenses and lost work hours.
References
Anna (2009), Littering and Its Effects on Environment, retrieved on February 4, 2011, from http://www.articlealley.com/article_875946_15.html
Cathy (2009), Littering Facts and Statistics, retrieved on February 4, 2011, from http://www.greenecoservices.com/littering-facts-and-statistics/
Appendix
List of Our Collection
1) Plastic- Juice, detergent and milk bottles and pet bottles
2) Paper- polythene bags, sweets and other commodity wrappings
3) Aluminum- Beer and other beverages aluminum cans
4) Glass- glass bottles
5) Non-recyclable- Banana peeling and apple cores.
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