I truly believe that littering is very good for the earth. I may have come to this conclusion one day just so I could disagree with Sarah and start a fight (I don't know why i do that...). But since that time I have come to fully believe it. Here in Uganda my point is proven.
Wikipedia (oh yes I am going there) says "To litter means to throw (often man-made) objects onto the ground and leave them unremoved, as opposed to disposing of them properly." Sounds about right. My problem is what is "disposing of them properly"? If that is recycling them then I am ALL for that. Please recycle. But many things are not recyclable. Disposing of them properly would be to throw them in a garbage can. That garbage can will be collected and the garbage transported to a landfill. And then it will magically disappear and cause the earth no harm at all!
Wrong.
The only difference between littering and "proper disposal" is aesthetics. If you throw your trash on the side of the road it looks bad! Its an eyesore. Its bad for the community. But its the exact same for the earth. If not better! When all of our garbage is collected and put in the same spot the things that should be biodegradable cannot biodegrade when compressed between tons of garbage. Garbage lasts longer when it is with other garbage.
So I propose we litter.
Because if we litter we can't ignore it.
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This is the path I take to get to the hospital. It goes through a field next to our house where the local council has placed a dumpster. The local council used to pick up the garbage that was thrown here but 5 months ago they quit. So the garbage comes.
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Cows graze here, kids play here, I walk here. The garbage that has piled up sucks.
The worst part about walking through the garbage is finding things that you are sure came from your house. From far away I can look at this mess and shake my head condescendingly at my neighbors and all of their garbage. Stupid messy neighbors.
But walking through it I see things I recognize.
That might be my Royco wrapper, maybe that is my old plastic bag, that is definitely my tuna fish wrapper from America. Suck.
Seeing my garbage in front of me every day makes me very conscious of what I am throwing away. If I can't recycle it (I can't recycle anything here) then I should find a way to reuse it. We keep salt in pringles containers and tea in old jars of spaghetti sauce. Old plastic bags can even be crocheted into handbags. They sell them at Urban Outfitters, super cute. At the same time not everything can be reused. When we were kids we were taught "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" but its like only recycling stuck. Why do people gotta hate on reduce and reuse? They feel bad about themselves, low self esteem and such.
Reduce! Consume less, a concept that is completely foreign to most of the western world. I think it is a choice we actually might make if we were faced with a front yard full of garbage.
Also garbage/litter will totally ruin your pictures. If that isn't a motivation to Reduce Reuse Recycle I just don't know what is.
Ok I was trying to find the School House Rock song about recycling and this was the closest I could find...
The worst part about walking through the garbage is finding things that you are sure came from your house. From far away I can look at this mess and shake my head condescendingly at my neighbors and all of their garbage. Stupid messy neighbors.
But walking through it I see things I recognize.
 |
Seeing my garbage in front of me every day makes me very conscious of what I am throwing away. If I can't recycle it (I can't recycle anything here) then I should find a way to reuse it. We keep salt in pringles containers and tea in old jars of spaghetti sauce. Old plastic bags can even be crocheted into handbags. They sell them at Urban Outfitters, super cute. At the same time not everything can be reused. When we were kids we were taught "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" but its like only recycling stuck. Why do people gotta hate on reduce and reuse? They feel bad about themselves, low self esteem and such.
Reduce! Consume less, a concept that is completely foreign to most of the western world. I think it is a choice we actually might make if we were faced with a front yard full of garbage.
Also garbage/litter will totally ruin your pictures. If that isn't a motivation to Reduce Reuse Recycle I just don't know what is.
Ok I was trying to find the School House Rock song about recycling and this was the closest I could find...
Its like a mutant School House Rock. I dont know how I feel about this.
