What needs to change in my local community and what role can I play to help it?
I think it is very fair to say that people could be very picky on the little things that we
could change in our local community, never mind the bigger things! I know the topic
that I am going to focus on is something that probably everyone will write about but
the years have gone by and if we don’t take drastic action many more will be wasted
with the terrible situation of litter getting worse. Before I continue, I think it is very
important that everyone knows the exact definition of litter; Litter is
things/objects/waste that have been thrown away and that are lying on the ground in a
public place or a messy pile or group of things. Litter can be: Cigarettes, bottles,
chewing gum, cups, cans, crisp wrappers, to name but a few. Now that we know the
true definition of litter I would like to talk about why litter is such a bad thing. Not
only is litter such a disgusting thing to look at, people won’t want to come into our
local community as it gives a bad impression. We are injuring, if not killing animals.
Chewing gum is a type of littering, not many people are aware of this and I think
people should be educated about it. For example, when gum is thrown on the ground
it looks like bread to a bird, then they try to eat it; it fouls their entire systems and
prevents them in digesting any proper food or water and this leads to them dying a
slow and painful death. It is very dangerous for a human’s personal health and safety
too. Glass can be lethal, especially if you fall onto it, for young children and elderly
people who may have bad eyesight it is very easy for them to trip or stumble over
litter too, litter also carries germs that can be very harmful. The cost to remove and
dispose of litter, especially chewing gum (it has to be steamed off the pavement) is
extortionate. This well needed money could be spent on more valuable things such as
youth clubs, health facilities, etc. Another good reason not to drop litter… it’s
ILLEGAL! This reason is very important, if everyone stuck to the law like we are all
meant to we would be litter free, the fact that we are drowning in litter is a big eye
opener, you can also get fined if caught. The really frustrating thing in all of this is
litter is solvable. As I said earlier there are many problems in our community but this
is something we CAN do something about. If the whole community came together
and really wanted to do something about litter, we could make a very big difference
within a year. There are many things that we can do to minimize litter. The first port
of call would be to put your rubbish in the bin in the first place! Everyone should
recycle everything that can be recycled and put their rubbish in the correct containers,
if you see someone throwing something on the ground, kindly ask them to pick it up
and tell them to put it in the bin, you can pick up any litter too but remember not to
pick anything up that you are not sure of or anything that could possibly harm you.
People could write to their local school or MP to arrange a litter pick up and
educational talks to make people more aware of the situation and how they can help.
Granted, litter is a very hard problem to solve because you can educate children to a
certain degree, you can provide people with enough bins, and even if people drop
litter you could try and have a kind word with them although a vast majority of the
time you would get verbal abuse back from them.
In conclusion there are many roles I could play to help litter. Such as; Organiser of a
litter pick up, going to the local primary and secondary to talk to them, there is so
much that people can do and I hope that in the future people’s attitude towards litter
will change and litter become a thing of the past.