I have got a confession to make :
I am the occasional litter… mainly, it is my cigarette buds that gets thrown
onto the street, but on the rare occasion it will be things such as apple cores
and plastic bottles.
I don’t consider my littering as
a massive crime, but I will always feel guilty whenever I do it, and the reason
why is because I’d rather throw out my littering in a litter box. I’m one of
those persons who rarely bring a bag and even rarer, a plastic bag for
littering.
My problem is that whenever I
litter, I have been searching for a long time for a litter box, and when I find
one, it is so full that my own litter would fall out. And when it comes to my
cigarette buds, there are very few places where I can extinguish my cigarette
and throw it out. So when I litter, I feel guilty, then disappointed by the
lack of litter boxes.
The main problem is this : We all
litter – some of us litter more than others, but to an extent, we all litter.
Most of us litter because we cannot find a place to throw out our litter when
we are walking on the streets, and considering that we are approaching tourist
season, this will be a problem.
2012 is a great year for London
and England in general. Not only have we been celebrating the Diamond jubilee,
but we are also hosting the Olympics. This will mean that we will get more
tourists this year than the year previously, but we will still have the same
amount of litter boxes around in the street, and at a time where we want to
show our country at the very best, we will risk the streets flowing with
litter. Do you see the same issue as I do?
As an occasional litter due to
the lack of litter boxes, I already fear going into London during the time of
the Olympics because I will be able to see litter everywhere, and let’s be
honest – litter in the street does not give the best impression to the outside
world. I noticed this for the first time when I was in Istanbul where there
were virtually no litter boxes around and the streets were flowing with litter.
Call me snobbish, but it wasn’t nice at all.
So what can we do about it? I
suggest that we install more litter boxes and that we let them stay there and
that we, most importantly, use them. Think of the image to the outside world –
do we want the tourists to be reminded of the littered streets during London
2012? No, I didn’t think so.
