Environmental Issues

Our environment is either clean or littered. With a clean environment, it implies that either the people living in this environment do not litter or if they do, there is a section of the society that takes the responsibility of removing the litter. On the other hand, there are people who throw rubbish irresponsibly littering the environment. These two groups of people differ significantly in terms of their attitudes, personality and backgrounds. People who litter often lack a sense of personal responsibility, are either lazy, or they do so unconsciously whereas those who do not litter have a higher personal responsibility and awareness of the consequences of littering.

People who litter
It is not uncommon to find a person throw a cigarette butt out of their car window not caring where it will fall or even a bunch of youths leave behind a lot of paper wrappers and bottles after having a fantastic party. It is also not unusual to find left over foods thrown everywhere in the environment both in private and public premises. A closer look into what makes people end up littering in such and other ways will reveal that most people do not feel mandated to take care of the environment. Such individuals lack personal responsibility for a safe and a clean environment due to several reasons. For instance, they may feel that after all, there is someone who has been given the responsibility of collecting the litter. To them, throwing rubbish anywhere is like creating jobs and keeping people at work. This may arise from a habit of always finding that rubbish that they had thrown is collected or clearly knowing that there is someone who will do it. There is also a class of people who throw rubbish all over on the claim that there are no dust bins nearby. Such an argument indicates lack of personal responsibility as it is always possible to carry the litter to the point where they locate one.

It may also happen that people who throw rubbish do so out of ignorance of the consequences of littering the environment. A person may often consider that just throwing a sweet wrapper is not sufficient enough to litter the environment and therefore it is justifiable. However, such a person fails to understand that the cumulative effect has a greater consequence. They assume the fact that continued littering ends up polluting the environment thus endangering the lives of all the dependants of the environment. Not only is the rubbish harmful to animals that may end up eating it, but it also presents health problems to people who may breath the polluted air or drink of the water that has pollutants from the environment.

People who throw rubbish may also do so out of mere laziness. Such people are usually well knowledgeable of the most appropriate places to throw the rubbish but they are just lazy to take it there. Finding out that no one will catch up with them and be punished, they throw the rubbish anywhere. Others still do it since just because the law does not restrict them or it is lenient on the same if they do not manage to escape. They also understand the consequences of littering but plainly defy them out of laziness. It is also possible to find people littering unconsciously especially if what constitutes litter is not clearly defined.

Non-littering individuals
There is a section of individuals who do not litter and in fact they may even go to the point of collecting litter. This class of people is made of persons whose responsibility to the environment is very high. They feel obliged to keep the surrounding clean and they do all they can to avoid littering. Such an individual will carry their litter up to a place where they can dispose it responsible in addition to setting up litter disposal facilities in their premises.

People who do not throw rubbish in addition to having a personal responsibility in ensuring a clean environment are also endowed with the knowledge on the need to keep the environment clean. They clearly understand the consequences of littering and combining these with personal responsibility. They work towards avoiding littering. Other than having such persons being informed on littering, their upbringing is highly attributed to their actions. In contrast to the likely carefree attitude of those who litter, non-littering individuals are usually brought up knowing the importance of avoiding litter. They therefore understand that staying in clean surroundings is their personal responsibility and it benefits in the end.

Conclusion
It is clear that people who throw rubbish differ from those who do not. Presence or absence of a sense of personal responsibility is the main determinant on whether a person litters or not. The individuals upbringing molds the responsibility and therefore other reasons on why people litter or not will highly depend on the individual. Knowledge of consequences of littering however is an important attribute to stress in preventing littering.