Who makes the city a trashy place?

Who makes the city a trashy place?

          

                             Public Bin on Brian Lara Promenade 

This is not an uncommon practice in Trinidad to see overfilled bins, litter dumped at the roadsides or even scattered in and around the pavements. Who makes the city such an unsightly scene? When you pass along the streets of Port of Spain you can see the indiscriminate disposal of litter waste that degrades the city’s beauty and liable to cause harm to human health.

Fellow citizens don’t you think every bit of paper you drop outside a bin counts?  Litter adds up to the scene in the picture-a dirty and filthy environment. The dropping of litter has become a natural and involuntary response from the spitting of a chewing gum on the ground, to food boxes and soft drink bottles thrown onto filled trash cans hoping they stick up somewhere. Then there is municipal waste business people pack on the pavements and in drains along the roadways? Trinis feel that the litter would clean up for itself and pollution is not their concern. Well, this is a serious growing problem in Trinidad and Tobago and the time is now to make the public aware of their unhealthy behaviors. The power to reduce pollution is in the palm of our hands. 

Please let us all wise up now because pollution is our creation and our eradication. Trinidad and Tobago is our homeland and we should not tarnish the beauty of our island. Do you think tourist will like to walk along streets that have garbage thrown allover and smell the stench of rubbish? It’s about time that the litter laws are enforced for citizens to change this careless attitude about litter disposal. 

Recently, the Government has launched a new litter warden programme to curb littering in public places. They have also revised the Litter Laws to increasing litter fines from $50 to $500. http://www.news.gov.tt/archive/index.php?news=12482. This article highlights the fact that citizen of the country needs to face the consequences of their littering actions and respect the environment. 

Hall and Barrette (2012), Humanistic geography is concerned with the meaning and significance that people attached to places. Relph (1976) stated that an important aspect of everyday life is the relationship between people and their urban space. In the picture it was clear to see that citizens of Trinidad placed no value on their urban space, instead dispose of their litter in an inappropriate manner. This show that the urban space has no real meaning or significances to citizen and the way in which people value their urban environment. It is said that urban spaces are pathways to sustainable development, yet sustainable development of the environment will not occur and unless citizens adapt environmentally friendly attitude to preserve and protect our urban space. 

For more information further reading can be done:

• Littering is a serious problem in all urban areas of America. This human behavior displaces no regrades for the esthetic value of the environment by disposing of trash in public urban spaces. The findings of the study revealed that individual deliberately disposed their waste any where they felt like in an improper manner.   
• http://www.kab.org/site/DocServer/KAB_Report_Final_2.pdf?docID=4581
  
  
• In an news paper article entitled "Public awareness needed on the ills of littering", teenagers are calling on the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago to be concerned about their attitudes towards littering.  
• http://www.newsday.co.tt/news/0,182141.html
  
  
  http://www.newsday.co.tt/hotline/0,178749.html

References

Hall, Tim. and  Heather Barrett. (2012). Urban Geography 4^th edition. London and New York: Routledge.

Relph, E, (1976). "Place and Placelessness". London: Pion. 

Government Information Services. (2013). “News Letter Wardens”. Accessed Date March 01, 2014 http://www.news.gov.tt/archive/index.php?news=12482