I was told many times here on EC by people from the different parts of the world something like: "Ohhhh….your life is so beautiful, everything there is so clean, especially your streets, pavements, roads etc." Honestly I was like: "WHATTTT????" I have never been to Asia in my life but yesterday I read an article about trash in Dhaka – capital of Bangladesh and guys, when I saw the pictures, I realized that if somebody lived surrounded by such sorry to say this "shits" of course then they will admire everything clean without any rubbish or litter.
Bangladesh
However, I am not here to brag about my environment, I was just thinking, how come such big issue has no solution as we are living in modern era and can deal with almost everything. It is not a secret that mostly developing countries face this problem and as they became more modernized, it brought a lot of garbage such as plastic bottles, bags etc. and nowadays they struggle with this all because they don't have enough money, their population is too high, they aren't educated when it comes to environment and many even think that to throw it all into the rivers, oceans is the best solution as the rains will take it away...
Manila Bay (Philippines) - fishermen (wondering if there is a single fish alive)
Anyway, I just wonder: How come that it is totally normal to drop litter for example on the streets of Jakarta, New York, Manila, Mexico City etc. and nobody cares??? How can be people so careless and create such mess around such as streets full of garbage and slowly become a part of it?!!! Do they have no basic awareness of hygiene or all these bacterias living there etc.?
You know, somewhere they have already come up with an interesting solution. For example in some parts of India people report these, who don't collect garbage etc. via Watsapp. I do believe, it might be helpful but why they just can't stop doing mess around them because they dislike it and feel bad about it? Why paying penalty is the only one tool which can force them to change their thinking? Honestly, this is something I will never understand and if somebody is able to explain it to me – thank you in advance, guys...
River of Garbage in Beirut (Lebanon)
Everything is about people, their attitude and some organizational skills. Speaking about it all, I can tell you that...firstly we have here containers for collecting garbage, which are daily taken away – I mean trash and garbage in them. We also separate our waste, which is to me very important and easier for another step, which is waste processing. We all know that the worse problem is plast and I wish one day plast would totally disappear and products would be packed in other way. Secondly on the streets are streetbins and thirdly we also have here people (unemployed or sentenced for some little crime), who clean the streets (even from the leaves in the autumn). I just wonder, how come such basic things aren't possible to start everywhere. There are several unemployed people, who could clean all these streets, drive the cars with the garbage to the dumps and we consumers would simply separate the waste! Is it such a big deal?
New York City (USA) isn't also so clean
As for me, I would never drop anything on the street because my mentality doesn't allow me to do it. It is simply somewhere in me but... why? The answer is really easy - yeahhh… my parents raised me like this - like most parents here raise the kids and this is the starting point of the whole change. As we know - kids are our future and should be educated, should know that such careless behaviour is something bad and not tolerated. To teach them this all, to be the best examples for them isn't hard work and if they learn something like this, it will really start massive change. It will help in many aspects and when such kids grow up, they will see the things differently in comparison to the previous generations. So, I believe that at least such small step, can change many things around and if parents or also teachers at schools would start teaching kids keeping the enviroment clean then one day streets of their city would become clean, rivers and oceans wouldn't be full of plastic bottles and trash and water under the ground would be once more again drinkable….Maybe it sounds like utopia but I think that the key word as for this issue is education...
This isn't APOCALYPSE - it is in China
What about your streets, are they stinky, full of garbage piles or litters? Are they clean? What about your attitude towards this all? Please, share your experience and opinions in your comments, I am looking forward to reading them...
Sources:
http://www.businessinsider.com/river-trash-garbage-beirut-lebanon-2016-3
http://www.catholic.org/news/green/story.php?id=58790
https://therealdeal.com/2015/05/09/nyc-dubbed-worlds-most-wasteful-mega-city/
http://www.china.org.cn/environment/2013-07/20/content_29480272.htm
Comments
First of all, I'd like to thank you for this eye-opening topic that tends to implement self-awareness on our humanly behavior and urge us to think twice about our environment and shed light on how our mother Earth is overwhelmingly affected by this pandemic virus of pollution, we can mostly see these micro plastics filling the ground, black plastic bags that are made of various chemicals which are mainly toxic polluting the air, bottles of mineral water scattering everywhere and that needs to be recycled, many of the trashes are dumped on a waste and once they are accumulated, it would become unpleasant to see, and more visibly when we see some people in slums digging through garbage as they comb through the giant mountains of trash looking for leftovers to fill the hanger. It is mostly found in places where corruption and violence prevails which is and it is all about self-education I think before we educate out children in terms of cognition or knowledge , we may have to spend a considerable time to establish good manners and to develop their characters on the preservation of the environment. Some people in many countries look down on waste collectors, so that this job became discreditable at some extent by our society while it is valuable in Japan. Well, I live in a country where pollution is neither high nor low but it depends on where you actually live and the degree of education of its inhabitants, but the problem in Algeria is that in some parts you may find air pollution due to multiple car engines, factories and the main problem is the dissatisfaction with garbage disposal which is very common in here and also the quality of green spaces and parks which are unpleasant to see but let's hope for the best. :)
Hi Luci,
You have arisen the nice topic, indeed. I am one of the persons who is aware of this matter. My work is having correlation with all of these thing especially in water. So, It makes me interested in commenting on your blog. One of your paragraph mentioned about Indonesia, sure I can’t deny the fact that it is true. Your theme about is the main problem of a developing countries generally. Awareness and educational are the key points why these has been taking place till nowadays. It is so sad to know this actually.
I have been living in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia for long time ago (I am a comer from a province in Indonesia). Jakarta itself is surrounded by 13 rivers and nearby sea/river mouth. Besides the condition of rivers itself which many of them full of garbage especially in the place near sluice gate (a river gate to control the water during raining in order to avoid flooding in some areas) and the estuary. These condition will be exacerbated with the tide. It has meaning surface runoff wouldn’t discharged to the river mouth swiftly because of tide effect. And you can imagine???yes, the severe flooding hits some areas in Jakarta. The effect of flooding actually not only in material but psychology as well (I meant is stressed) as well as illness.
If you let me to write this case, I will need two pages or more hahaha….But, the awareness of ourselves as a small action to initiate the positive thing that would bring the benefit to our environment, such as to put our rubbish in dustbin. The main issue that will appear in the future for our generation is fresh & clean water. So, let we keep it for our next generation.
I thank you for your idea to share it with us.
@Rose .. (Pressing Like button for comment)...... :)
@Luci.. (Pressing Unlike button for comment).... :P
I guess in my region is also similar to your country, town halls hire unemployed people to make such stuffs. As for plastic bags, the customer pays from 3 to 10 cents in supermarkets, so it's usual to carry their own bags from home. (I admit I'm not used to it haha..) Recycling is a pending task already I think but it's increasing year after year. There're underground waste containers to make it even easier although citizens have to make aware of this habit.
Dear Champ,
I really wanted not come over as if I wanted to humiliate or to insult India or the citizen of India. I really liked India and its friendly people. It was just a very shocking part of my trip around Rajasthan. I am sure there will be also other regions of India. And I also could see how people start to clean up the mess. I am aware it will take still a long time until people change their behaviour and until the dirt will be disappeared ... in general ... also for other things and not only in India. If I am not wrong, then your current prime minister Narendra Modi ( in own person ) has taken a broom in his hands to sweep the street, to be a role model for everyone. That was a good signal.
thanx for your comment, ushould added..how it is in your place ... :p
I anglad to see your comment and as I know you are big traveller, it is the best to hear such stories from somebody who experienced them..I believe it must have been shocking for you - would be shocked too but I think either such people you describe have no idea about some bacterias, hygiene etc. or they simply were raised in such mess and it is a part of their life!!! This is tragedy indeed!!! Can't imagine it :( Failure of many factors... government, education, organization but mostly politicians who should come up with some system!
thanx for your comment and like I said to Risty..it is mostly problem of overpopulated cities and here ...u know, here we don't have such high population, maybe thats why we can organize the things easier and ofc it is all easier so I should shut up :/ anyway, I remember your photo and ohhhh myyyy... grrr :D have a nice day in your paradise!
I mentioned India in my text, if u read it..u would get that ofc ..Anywayz, you don't have to regret as you live there and know the best everyday's messy oopss sorry stinky reality...
thank you for your comment and concern you showed us! It is really hard to educate mature smokers and especially such idiots :/ I fully can understand your hopeless feeling but you did sth important! No matter what you took action and humiliated him...hard to say if he realized it but still better than doing nothing! Bravooo!!!
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