Too much garbage in your face? There’s plenty of space out in space!

Keriann Woodhams, Writer
May 25, 2012
Filed under Frank Hurt News, World Issues

LITTER, LITTER, FLY AWAY, PROBABLY WON’T BE SEEING YOU AGAIN SOME DAY.

There are a couple minutes before the bell rings, and students are slowly inching away from their seats so they can leave the school at their lunch time break to grab something to eat. Lunch time is a time that the high school students feel free, finally a break from the long multiple choice tests, in-class essays and projects due at the end of the class. Lunch time is a privilege but most students at Frank Hurt aren’t using that time responsibly. Instead, they become lazy and don’t take care of their garbage properly, which is damaging to our environment.

Do you know that in British Columbia alone, 35 percent of people drop litter at least one to three times a week, that 9 percent of people drop it four to nine times a week, an astonishing 5 percent of people drop litter 10 times a week and lastly only 53 percent of Canadians said that they don’t drop litter at all. Now, a lot of people would say that statistic is not that bad because the people who drop litter 10+ times in a week only account for 5 percent of BC: What can you do to prevent excess waste anyway? You’re not a part of the 5 percent after all.

But there is so much that you can do!  We all need to partake in preventing litter; otherwise the numbers will really begin to add up. Plus, we are not even taking into account for the other provinces and territories that also create waste: For example Nunavut had 20 percent of people dropping litter ten times in the last week, according to statistics from census Canada.

Think about how much ten times really accounts for and what it looks like on the ground, in your neighbourhood.  Litter shows how careless and lazy people have become.  Be aware of your surroundings, and then you will start to notice the impact and how often people don’t dispose of their trash correctly, like I have here at Frank Hurt.  The students that I have seen littering excessively is what inspired me to talk about the damage they cause. Litter is unsightly, and it doesn’t belong on the ground, in ditches, on the sidewalk, roads, or in the environment in general.

I don’t think littering is a problem that can’t be solved, because there are many available recycling and trash stations.  People simply don’t take the time to dispose of their garbage; this is the main problem, and it’s also the reason why it continues to happen.  We don’t realize how big our actions as students can have on the environment, and how able we are to positively affect environmental problems such as global warming. We should be focusing on the problems that we created; not only is the litter disgusting to look at, it’s also damaging to the environment and wildlife.  Rain and wind will allow your garbage to travel down streams, and into oceans, where it threatens wildlife.  When you drop litter on the ground once, you have let it become a constant problem; how are you ever going to find that exact piece of trash that you dropped last Tuesday?

When we notice people littering, we should do the right thing and ask them to pick it up and find a garbage can. That way we can make positive contributions to our planet.  We all live here, so we should do our best to protect what we share.

I often see other people harming our environment when I’m heading towards the school grounds; and I’ll see them pass by a garbage can, and then two seconds later drop trash on the ground, (even though in about 60 seconds they’re going to have another opportunity to throw their trash in the garbage can), I ask them to go back and retrieve their garbage.  I just don’t understand why it’s that hard to hold onto trash.  I mean, it’s not like they were willing to drop it before it had their soda or candy in it, so why when everything’s gone, is it okay to litter? You wouldn’t leave your Tupperware containers around, would you? Whenever I can’t immediately find a garbage can, which sometimes can be the case for students, I slide it into my pocket, or put it into my purse, especially something small like a gum wrapper. Later when I come across a garbage can, I can properly dispose of it.

I do my best to make sure that we all dispose of our trash correctly, whether I hold onto it and wait for a garbage can, encourage others to dispose of it properly, or simply just make sure that my trash makes it in the garbage every time. I hate seeing how often this has become a problem for the majority of students at Frank Hurt during their lunch break.  I wish students would consider the impacts that they make and what we can all do to contribute to a healthy community here in Frank Hurt, because just a simple start in a small community can make a big difference everywhere else.