Baby cats are cute little things called litter. That’s not the litter I’m talking about here. This is about human litter. Not the daily verbal type either, the physical mess we scatter around freely. It’s the product of a nasty, filthy habit of those with no regard for the environment or what happens to the garbage we throw out our cars, minibus taxis and the train. Strikes and bin-trashing during labour unrest does not count, especially when the same people that trashed the streets go on to clean up after themselves.
I was driving home one Joburg evening when a live cigarette stub landed in front of me. I impulsively swerved before registering the immediate “harmlessness” of the threat. Later, I realised that the threat and risk of this is real and I do not mean in the form of the medical costs of treating lung cancer and related illnesses, but the environmental challenges of cleaning up after grown-ups who should know better and the long-term impact of the slow breakdown and degeneration of waste. Yet littering happens all the time. The wise ones say that we see more of what we pay attention to than anything else. So if I pay attention to litter I will see more of it. Driving behind a bus the other day an empty pack of potato crisps flew past my windscreen, followed a few minutes later by a banana peel, a plastic bottle and plastic bag with something that I could not figure out at around 60km/h. I kept thinking, this mess really sucks. The wise ones say that in every perceived problem or challenge lies hidden a great opportunity. So I searched my troubled mind and there it was. A potentially lucrative concept for an advert against littering.
The idea is to freak out every smoker and make them think twice about flicking that stub out the car, to stop the passenger in the minibus taxi, bus from throwing their junk out the window. Smokers, I can’t understood why you don’t stick the stub in the compartment provided for you in your car. Someone please explain that to me.
The advert might disgust you, but I think it might work. Keep an open mind. (I’ll keep the rights to the original concept, thank you). Picture this advert on television, graphics done perfectly. Cars in full colour driving along a road, smouldering waste on either side of the road, two metres high and five metres wide, plastic bags and burning cigarette stubs all piled up. Every time someone throws something out of the car, the dirt gulps it down, burps and grows bigger, heaves up and down and spews corrosive toxins onto the person’s car, eating up their tires and other car rubbers and plastics, then sucks the car into the dirt, slowly, while the driver gets stuck … sucks the dirt, chokes on it, does not die.
Nasty, that last bit, but necessary. I take it back. No killing.
We don’t need Greenpeace to tell us the ocean is chocking with plastic and bottles. Small habits make a huge impact. Equally, small changes cumulatively have a huge positive impact. This calls for a small mindshift and lots of willpower from each one of us.
My little niece had a better suggestion for an anti-litter campaign. She says all litter, cigarette stubs, plastics should somehow come alive and follow the owner right to their homes and demand to be properly disposed of. Freaky that. I did not put those clever (nasty!) ideas into her head. It’s the little angel’s fertile imagination. I did not ask her what happens if the person refuses to dispose of the litter properly. I think she would say that the litter must then fly and stick itself onto the person’s body until he apologises and does the right thing. I’ll ask her.
Imagine all the cigarette stubs or rubbish you have ever thrown out of your car following you to your house and piling up in your garage or driveway.
Not a pretty sight that. I think Pikitup or the department of environmental affairs should work on this advert and flight it before the 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup. It might mean that a few street cleaners’ jobs are at risk but it will help clean up the environment. Littering is increasing at an alarming rate, we may not see it clearly yet but it will choke our lives or those of our children down the line.
What about the politicians’ verbal litter? I’ll ask my little niece for suggestions.
I can see it: “The Day of the Litter”. Hilarious! Watch that young woman’s development closely. I have tried everything else in my one man campaign against litter fiends (bugs are nice and useful) with little success. Perhaps another crime the police should start paying attention to again? Littering is still a crime, isn’t it?
Wholeheartedly agree! Some people don’t stop for a second to think about who must pick up the stuff they throw carelessly away on the ground. Yet those same people love to complain when a place is dirty. They should start issuing spot fines for litterbugs.
Great blog! Litter is such a huge problem. But many people are struggling to find enough food to eat and I suppose the environment is the last of their worries. But then I have seen people from across the economic spectrum littering
Litterbugs are dangerous.
Start by going to http://www.thechicecologist.com/2009/06/pacific-plastic-trash-island/ to see the long-term effects of litter that gets blown into the oceans.
Then think about this: Fires started by arsonists as well by still burning cigarette butts thrown out of car windows have caused hundreds of millions of rands damage in South Africa in the last few years.
We urgently need to find a way to stamp out litterbugging.
Perhaps we need imitate cities such as Singapire which actively issue fines to people who just dump rubbish. It is after all one of the cleanest cities in the world.
Spot on Dumi, to me this topic is right up there with HIV, crime and unemployment in terms of being a priority!
Agree 1000% good blog. The solution is three fold:
education from Class 1, install pride in a clean country, (also from Class 1) and do what Singapore do, heavy spot fines, zero tolerance.
Brent
I used to rail against littering when I was in high school, back in the early 90s, and all to no avail. We’re talking a very expensive private school here; littering seems to be something that cuts across income levels. I know some very highly paid, very clever people who think it’s funny to flick cigarette butts from office balconies. Lecturing them on littering will not change their behaviour.
I’m all for some form of public shaming for littering, although the practicalities of implementing this might be a challenge. Ultimately, social unacceptability is the only long term solution.
More needs to be done about litter. Education is key! On the beaches in CT there is so much mess that its sad. Makes you wonder whether people actually love the beaches or not. The worst experience I had though was climbing up Table Mountain, Platteklip Gorge in particular, to find streams of litter. I was too tired to pick it up on my way up, but collected all those disgusting cigarette stubs, beer bottles, plastic water bottles and other plastic litter. I filled 3 plastic bags on one route! The sad reality is though that education is needed across the board. Even rich folk in this country are gross and litter our streets, beaches and mountains with disgusting litter.
I could not agree more. My absolute pet hate and if there is one thing that is going to let this country down during the WC it is this disgusting attitude people have to littering. Such a beautiful country, tourists will say, shame no one there cares.
The other day a truck stopped in the street outside my house and the driver unloaded a pile of trash into the veld opposite. I ran out and asked him where he lived, because i would like to dump all my rubbish in his street. He just drove away.
These people think they are better than everyone else, and they’re going to prove it to you by keeping their immediate environment clean while trashing yours. This is also why they throw cigarette butts out of cars – rather not stink up their own car.
Your niece has a great idea; just an advert is not going to work – people need to be punished to get the message. I really believe that if the police cracked down on this they would make a lot of progress with other crime too.
Parents should set the example for their children as well. How many fathers have you all seen chuck cigarette stubs out of the car window? Even still they do it, and every South African knows the risk of fire …
Nice blog. I find litter and pollution even more depressing than crime – possibly because it’s even more apparent.
A name and shame ‘em campaign might work. Perhaps it should start with children; they’re pretty good at putting pressure on adults. A schools campaign, maybe? And then a neigbourhood campaign…? Shoprite could sponsor it.
Like every public priority in this country, this subject has been done to death with poor results. I do wish, though, that the money spent advertising government departments and state-owned orgaisations (which we have no choice but to use, anyway) would instead be put to regulation, something the South African authorities are immensely bad at!
Sigh.. we can’t even enforce basic traffic laws to stop idiots who drive with their children on their laps?? How on earth are we going to stop the general public from polluting their environment? I mean when you can’t see your shack for the festering rubbish that’s piling up or you’re polluting your own drinking water to the point where small children are dying?? I’ve seen rich people open their speeding car doors while they are driving to throw out takeaway boxes. We live like pigs. Sorry, that’s unfair to pigs – they’re cleaner!
When I did a road trip in the States I noticed the big signboards all along the road. $1000 fine for anyone caught throwing a cigarette butt out a car window. But they actually have the man power to enforce it!
@MLH – “Like every public priority in this country, this subject has been done to death with poor results. I do wish, though, that the money spent advertising government departments and state-owned orgaisations (which we have no choice but to use, anyway) would instead be put to regulation, something the South African authorities are immensely bad at!”
We have great environmental laws. The right to a healthy environment is enshrined in the Constitution. The reason this problem will never be sorted out is that the police is so understaffed and untrained they are not enforcing these laws. The law exactly stipulates the fines and even prison sentences to be given to transgressors of both littering and illegal dumping but, quite frankly, it is not being applied.