Chronicle Editor
Fredrick Qaphelani Mabikwa
LITTERING is the act of throwing away waste, rubble, or garbage in places that are not designated for waste disposal.
Littering can be intentional or unintentional and can involve small items like food wrappers to large items like household furniture. Littering can be harmful to the environment, wildlife, and human beings.
Given the magnitude of spoilage to the environment, especially through littering, President Mnangagwa, recognising the constitutional mandate to uphold fundamental environmental rights, provided for in Section 73 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, declared every first Friday of each calendar month a National Clean-Up Day and the cleaning shall be undertaken from 8am and 10am.
In his declaration, the President noted that every individual around the country has to clean their surrounding areas, be it places of work, education, religion, recreational and residential premises to deal with waste management in the country. This is to be done in the spirit of creating a clean, safe and healthy environment.
People dispose of litter in various ways. Intentionally, some people throw litter from moving vehicles, some drop litter on the streets or footpaths, and some, after a picnic or rest in a designated public space, leave litter there. Very common in most Zimbabwean cities are unauthorised vending sites which house a lot of litter.
Some people set up illegal sites for selling foodstuffs, some of which are cooked there in the open air, and the food leftovers and wrappers litter the surrounding places. Illegal small businesses sprout, especially in the Central Business District (CBD). In Bulawayo, we have some “bush-mechanics” fixing cars in illegal areas and littering these places in the process.
We have young men changing car wipers, putting tints on car windows and littering in the process. These play cat and mouse with the city council security trying to enforce city by-laws. Unintentional littering may occur when some unsecured loads blow out of trucks, cars, or trailers. This is, however, of a very low magnitude. Some rubbish is also wind-blown. At the end of the day, we have our surroundings littered with cigarette butts, fast food packaging (bags, cups, serving items), food packaging (wrappers & boxes), food leftovers, alcoholic beverage containers, tyre and vehicle debris, plastic bags, plastic bottles and construction waste.
Lately, there has been an upsurge of waste on our highways. Buses, especially, do recesses and these recess places are left with plastic and metal bottles and food wrappers, some litter is thrown out of moving buses, littering even rural areas which used to be free from litter.
What are the reasons for intentional littering by some people? Global studies have been conducted to answer that question and found four main reasons. Some people just litter because they are lazy or careless. People who litter out of laziness or carelessness often believe that someone (a maintenance worker) will pick up the litter. They know that come tomorrow, the place will be clean because someone is employed to pick up that litter and properly dispose of it. There is also a lack of access to trash repositories. In certain cases, law enforcement is very lenient and the other factor is the presence of litter already in the area. Some people will not have been educated about the impact of littering and therefore litter because they don’t know the harmful effects of litter. Some people may live in cultures where littering is accepted and this type of littering behaviour is often the hardest to combat.
Litter is a major cause of pollution. Chemicals and micro-particles are released as litter degrades. These chemicals are not natural to the environment and hurt the environment. Cigarette butts can contain chemicals such as arsenic and formaldehyde. These poisons can make their way into the soil, contaminating freshwater sources and negatively impacting human and animal life. Scientific research has shown that close to 60 percent of water pollution is due to litter. Litter can also pollute the air. Researchers estimate that more than 40 percent of the world’s litter is burned in the open air, releasing toxic emissions. These emissions are a major cause of respiratory issues and related health problems.
Animals, both domestic and wild, are not spared by litter. Researchers estimate that over 1 million animals die each year after ingesting, or becoming entrapped in, improperly disposed trash. Plastic litter is the most common killer of animals. In rural Zimbabwe, most cattle die from ingesting plastic. Marine animals are also affected. It is estimated that each year over 100 000 dolphins, fish, whales, and turtles die after being entangled in or digesting plastic litter.
Improperly discarded litter is a breeding ground for bacteria and diseases. Litter can spread diseases, viruses, and parasites through two methods — direct and indirect contact. Now we are in the rainy season, busy areas like vegetable markets in the cities have wet litter thrown around.
These are breeding grounds for all sorts of germs which can be transmitted directly by physically coming into contact with litter. Bacteria and parasites can also be transmitted to humans indirectly through an affected vector.
Vectors are animals or insects that come in contact with contaminated litter and then transmit those contaminants to humans. This is how serious littering can be. Imagine the number of germs flies that can transmit from the litter to vegetables on the stalls at the market.
Waste management can be very costly if residents do not behave responsibly. Hiring more street sweepers and related equipment, say for local authorities, costs taxpayers’ money and diverts funds from other projects like water provision and road maintenance. So is attendance to diseases that have been directly and indirectly caused by litter.
These are the salient effects of littering, which must be taken with all the seriousness they deserve. It can be difficult to fully comprehend the monumental effects of throwing a plastic cup out of a window or dropping food packaging on the ground until a human or animal life is lost.
Online Reporter