Littering

What can littering do to us or the environment?

Litter has the potential to cause harm to human health, safety, and welfare; it harms wildlife and environmental quality on Earth. Litter can harm the environment in a number of different ways. It is a breeding ground for disease-causing insects and rodents. Its "ugliness" damages the appearance of scenic environments. Uncollected litter can flow into streams, and storm water drainage systems and local bays. Animals may get trapped or poisoned with litter in their habitats. Cigarette butts and filters, a threat to wildlife, have been found in the stomachs of fish, birds and whales, who have mistaken them for food. Also, containers which collects water will cause mosquitoes to grow and increasing the mosquito population.

Also, if you were to litter a lot, and accumulate all the trash. The trash will pile up around and will look nasty, then it starts rotting and smells nasty. Plus, garbage all over will make us sick because of the harmful bacteria that grows there. 

How to take action to prevent littering?

#1

Educate all your family and friends about littering and how bad it is.

Letting them know the importance of keeping the environment and also the disadvantages of littering so that they will know the consequences or the dos and don'ts of littering. 

#2

Form a community service group.

We can also help in picking up litters. For example, we would go to the beach to pick up the litters that were thrown by inconsiderate people. Help to keep the environment clean and maintain it, whenever we see litter, we should take the initiative to pick it up and throw it into a bin instead of just walking pass it.

#3

Write a letter to the government about using less packaging which creates a lot of litter, or about using more environmental friendly production methods or materials.

For example, using less materials like plastic because plastic is non-biodegradable, it cannot be decomposed therefore leading to pollution. Therefore, using materials such a paper bags would be much better because it is biodegradable. 

#4
Demote smoking.

Because 34% of litters are cigarette butts. Imagine how much cleaner it would be if there were lesser or no cigarette butts at all. Demoting smokers and encouraging them to quit smoking will be better, for example telling them the disadvantages of smoking on how it can damage our health and also cause air pollution.

References
http://www.wikihow.com/Take-Action-to-Prevent-Littering
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090320122834AAdnWCc
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_will_happen_if_you_litter_all_the_time