This guest post is brought to you by Silent_One @ littlebro.

I’m sure most people will know about this major issue which is invading our world by storm, and yes, it never cease to amaze our foreign tourists with our own, Malaysian style of littering. Here’s a definition of litter, according to Wikipedia :

Litter is a waste type consisting of any tangible personal property which has been unlawfully scattered and or abandoned in a public place (usually outdoors).

- Litter @ Wikipedia

In other words, littering is the act of throwing rubbish everywhere, and not into appropiate place such as trash bins. This might be a minor issue for most people, as we tend to think that “Bah, there will always be people sweeping the litter away” or “I’ve paid my tax, and the state government should send someone to sweep all my litter away”. Wait till you see the money spent on sweeping litter.

Victorian councils spend over $50 million sweeping the streets, emptying and servicing street litter bins and litter traps and cleaning up litter each year (EcoRecycle Local Government Data Collection 2004).

Source: Sustainability Australia

$50 million. This is not a small amount, in fact, this money should not be spent in the first place! Instead, this money should be spent on other more important things such as to curb poverty or to improve local amenities.

You ask, what do people usually litter? Well, it varies from cigarette butts, chewing gum, take away food packaging, beverage/beer bottles, paper, plastics, shopping trolleys and organic materials such as food, dog poo. It isn’t surprising that cigarette butts are the most littered item – constituting more than 50% of all litter. Take away food and paper litter on the ground can be found in every public place.

We have even seen some most unlikely rubbish such as house furniture and even refrigerators thrown as litter. Basically, anything unwanted is thrown as litter and left everywhere, hoping for the someone to collect it and send it to the trash depot.

Now, the most critical part of this littering issue: Who litters? Picnickers, hunters, fishermen, campers, boaters, water skiers, careless pedestrians, motorists, truck drivers, construction and loading dock workers, are prime litter providers. But from my point of view, everyone has the tendencies to litter, regardless of age, race and gender. It doesn’t take a degree to litter a piece of paper, and even a 3 year old kid can litter. So basically, what makes people litter?

What I can say is ignorance. People tend to take things for granted and the effects is hazardous for this issue. Our government provides us with trash bins and huge trash containers, but we opt for the bad, alternative way to dispose of our trash.

We keep hoping that our litter will finally be cleaned off by city hall cleaners. But what if this doesn’t happen? Then our litter will simply be left at the same spot, washed by rain, dried by sun, and the process will repeat until our litter finally decompose. But what hurts the most is not this repetitive process, but the environment, our Mother Earth.

Animals may get trapped or poisoned with litter in their habitats. Litter can end up in rivers, canals and even seas, polluting the water supply and further endanger marine life, as litter can decrease oxygen levels when it decays in water. Besides that, huge amount of litter may also contribute to unwanted disease and attract or breed pests such as rats in trash bins and mosquitoes in paper cups or beverage cans. Indirectly, this amount of litter will also create a stinky odour and cause uneasiness, especially in a neighbourhood. Cigarette butts and filters, a threat to wildlife, have been found in the stomachs of fish, birds and whales, “mistaking them for food“.

Image credit: Racine.

So, what can we do to reduce and prevent littering? I think the most effective way to prevent littering from getting worse is through education. Yes, I understand that it might be a little too difficult to educate adults and teenagers to not litter. But there’s still our younger generations. The kids. The children. They are still young, and this is the easiest period of their lives when they are most easily influenced and this is also the time where we can instill good values such as “do not litter” to them. How about the elder generations, you say? Actually, it’s already done via the enforcement of environmental law, but what is needed now is some enhancement and stricter enforcement to ensure that every single person who litters will be fined or punished to do some community work and even jailed in certain countries. Take Singapore as the best example. They ban chewing gum in their country for this reason, and that is why their country save so much on litter management.

No matter who we are, we should play our own part in keeping our planet clean. Stop littering and make the world a better and cleaner place to live in.

P/S: Check out the things that people trash in the Throwaway Society Group @ Flickr.

Silent_One @ littlebro is an IT graduate who blogs at ~ d a r k n e s s ~. Unlike other ordinary young man, he mutters about the turbulence and downs (no ups) in life, while searching for his long lost soul. He hides himself in the huge city of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and hopes that no one can recognize him except for his friends.