Litter bugs me

A friend of mine sent me some photographs the other day showing the state of the Durban beachfront after a Saturday night and I was visibly shocked. He and his family went for a Sunday stroll on the promenade and was met with so much litter, it was actually quite unbelievable.

People who know me know that litter is my biggest bug bear! I don’t understand the behaviour; it’s a scourge and absolutely disgusting that human beings have no pride in their city that they feel it’s okay to be behave in this manner. 

There was a whole campaign a while back to get people to stop buying plastic bags at shopping centres and encouraged them to recycle the ones they already had, but that doesn’t seem to have worked. Wherever I go, and more especially wherever there’s a barbed wire fence, there’s litter (plastic bags) attached to it. 

So what we have here is a scenario where we want a whole bunch of people to clean up after us. We haven’t fostered a culture where we actually clean up after ourselves. I’ve heard people say this – and I think it’s despicable - “Why do we need to clean up? It doesn’t matter, I’m creating employment!”  What nonsense! It’s not creating employment – well, not any kind of dignified work anyway, having to clean up after someone else! 

Then there are those that fling litter out of their car windows! I once witnesses a Metro policeman fling an entire plastic bag out the window of his car, one that contained the remains of his lunch, on to the highway... And from a marked police car! Who did he think was going to pick this up? I hooted and flashed my headlights at him, but he just sped off... And he’s but one of hundreds of people that do this on a daily basis! So you’ve got a car... it’s a contained vessel, why can’t you keep your litter in there until you get to a rubbish bin and empty it then? 

I will never understand the psychology behind people who litter. Perhaps it feeds in to this whole idea of being unaccountable for things we do in this country. Perhaps it’s because we live our lives unconscious of the world around us.

In the end, what do we do about it? Everybody has a responsibility. It’s like racism, when you see it, tackle it head on! And then, perhaps, only then, it will stop. 

You can email Terence Pillay at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @terencepillay1