Littering
Good afternoon, teacher, and classmates. Today I´m gonna talk about Littering .
What is Littering?
Litter is any kind of trash thrown in small amounts, especially in places where it does not belong. With time, it heaps up. The
most common trash includes fast food containers, cigarette butts, used drink bottles, chewing gum wrappers, junk, household contents, toys,
food, or scraps. even people get rid of personal belongings,
Although leaving garbage on the streets is prohibited and there are signs like "do not litter", people don´t obey.
Littering is a dangerous activity and should not be taken lightly because it impacts the environment in many ways.
Causes of Littering
Construction Projects: Mostly private property owners decide to build or rebuild. So the garbage also comes from construction
projects, such as , the waste of the worker's lunch hour, pieces of wood, metals, plastics, cardboard and paper are some of the waste materials
that are commonly generated.
Laziness and kérlesness: It is common to see people throw garbage out the windows of the bus or cars, probably because they are
too lazy to put it in the rightful places. Carelessness has also made people just dumped litter anywhere. In a 2019 annáunsment, the UN said
that Latin America had a higher rate of garbage generated by each person than other countries.
Lack of Trash cans: We know that it is not allowed to leave garbage on the streets but garbage cans are lacking, I mean, some
places have them, but they aren´t enough, which leads to the overload of the containers. Despite this, In an interview, Dr. Phae asked us to
promote a green lifestyle to reduce the amount of garbage.
Low Fines: The fines for littering in many countries are quite low, or even there is no provision for fines at all. People don´t
expect to get fined, that's why people keep doing it. Johnnise Downs is an important activist and at a press conference, she said littering was a
crime, but they weren´t enforcing the law. When she said "they", she meant the authorities.
Consequences of Littering: one of many consequences is :
It Affects and Can Kill Wildlife: Many animals suffer and die as a result of the presence of these wastes in their habitat. they
mistake plastic litter for food and when they eat garbage, they reduce the stomach's capacity as it cann´t be digested. eventually kills the
animal. In Peru, Carlos Calagua at an event on the environment said that 80% of the pollution in the sea came from cities and not from boats.
Posible solution
Recycling of waste: The waste of resources can be prevented by recycling, and it is possible to reuse many things thrown in the
garbage. Both the local community and the overall environment can benefit from recycling materials instead of littering. It saves natural
resources energy, clean air and water and conserves the environment.
For example, there is an NGO that is in charge of this issue, it is called LIBERA and they explained that at the beginning its
purpose had been to make people aware.
Now they mobilize people, and they also said that they had an approach for the problem in three dimensions: knowledge, prevention and
participation.
