The capacity for people to litter has grown immensely in the past few decades with the spread of plastic packaging that accompanies every product sold. Great for the convenience of the customer and a marketing opportunity for the suppliers and stores.
Another thing that happened was the rise of China and the East as the global manufacturing centre. For every 10 shipping containers full of manufactured goods sent, only three were not empty and those were full of waste to be re-cycled. That situation has now changed and China no longer processes waste to be recycled. Some other countries are taking this business, but there is still a lack of recycling capacity once handled by overseas operators. Most developed countries have a waste management problem and a shortage of land to bury or incinerators to burn the waste they produce.
These are systemic problems have only recently climbed up the political agenda with the rise of concerns over damage to the environment.
It is a pretty cheap shot to blame litter on the cultural and social manners, or lack thereof. Put the responsibility on the shoulders of the individual to inculcate their children that they must dispose of litter and protect the environment. Fine people who dump rubbish in quiet areas at night. These measures take the heat off the politicians who know there is an expensive problem to solve that will require a budget and infrastructure. Large retailers that generate huge amounts of packaging are not keen to meet the re-cycling costs and these companies have lobbyists whose job it is to influence the government regulation in a way that does not erode their profitability.
I am sure there are many hereabouts who remember the pre-plastic packaging days when carrier bags were brown paper, food was sold loose and wrapped in bags or newspaper. It biodegraded and was much less of a problem. In poor countries recycling is a big business, there is a living to be made out of it. As they grow richer, other ways of making a living become possible and consumption increases, outstripping the capacity to recycle.
The answer is to put the broken waste disposal and recycling system right. This is happening…slowly. In the UK there are plastic bag taxes at supermarkets. This has been quite a success because it was well thought out incentivising the customer to have recycle their plastic bags or reuse biodegrable carrier bags or pay a small charge. The big supermarkets were incentivised by allowing them to give part of the bag charge to local charities.
However, the takeaway food and drink industry have got a long way to go and they must account for the lot of the the unsightly rubbish left behind by visitors. As people grow more prosperous they tend to cook less at home, particularly the younger generation who do not know how to cook.
While it is easy to look down conspicuous litter bugs, shaking your head at the lack of pride and personal responsibility exhibited by others. The responsibility for cleaning the streets and parks and publicly owned land lies with local government, as is the enforcement of waste disposal rules. Concerned citizens can do something, but it takes a large organisation to do it consistently at scale. Tax payers need to make their feelings known to politicians at a local and a national level. This is starting to happen, but there is a long, long way to go. People are becoming more conscious of the issue just now because of the lockdown and an increased appreciation of public spaces as an asset. An asset that needs to be protected from the tide of litter that accompanies visitors.
But a long term solution to systemic problems needs national solutions to make it work. Have some poor country to become the litter and waste recycling capital of the world and handle container loads of waste material from wherever? There are contenders for that. UK rubbish disposed of by local governments sometimes finds its way, right across the world because there is not enough land to bury it locally. That still requires a collection and sorting system at source…and that requires a solution to the Mc Litter problem of excess, wasteful and polluting packaging.
There are lots of interesting ideas, but I do wonder if anywhere has taken this problem seriously and solved the problem end to end? It is not exactly the glamorous ‘flag ship’ issue in which politicians see career enhancing opportunities. But then concerns over climate change, burning fossil fuels environmental concerns that were a by product of industry were a fringe issue a couple of decades ago and are now mainstream policies. So things may change.
