‘Honestly, I couldn’t care less’: lifting the lid on littering
● Plastic bags snagged on barbed wire fences, chip packets and polystyrene cups tumbling along pavements littered with broken bottles and torn cigarette boxes.
Why are these such common sights in SA?
Mounds of litter are an environmental hazard and eyesore and, while many assumptions are made about this, researchers led by the University of the Western Cape (UWC) have now heard directly from residents why they litter.
Their findings were published this week in the South African Journal of Science.
“We explored the perceptions of residents in four townships and a village in South Africa on littering,” said lead author Catherina Schenck from UWC. Interviews were conducted with 322 people from these lower socioeconomic-status areas.
All were “characterised by high unemployment and grant dependency”, but had varying levels of waste-management services.
They included Paarl East and Mbekweni in the Western Cape, Calvinia in the Northern Cape, Philippolis in the Free State and Matshelapata in Limpopo.
Paarl East and Mbekweni are in a municipality with regular waste management, while Calvinia has regular household waste removal, but does not provide bins or bags.
Philippolis services are “irregular” and in some instances “managed by the community”, while Matshelapata does not have any waste-removal service.
A commonly cited misperception by residents was that littering stimulated job creation.
A participant in Matshelapata said: “They end up thinking that when they litter many jobs would be opened because the municipality would see [the] need to hire more waste pickers.”
Another common theme was “those who litter have no respect and care for self, others and the environment”.
One participant said littering resulted from “being raised badly. Not raised properly at home.”
Another participant said littering was due to “no discipline. No respect. Because we don’t think.”
Another notable theme was littering in reaction to a non-caring government.
“The non-caring constructed theme continues in the participants’ reported experiences of a government [local and national] that lacks care for residents,” said the authors.
One participant said: “Honestly, I couldn’t care less [about the litter]. The South African government doesn’t take citizens seriously.”
Another said: “Some people already decided that there is nothing good left for them because the municipality is corrupt and so they will keep on littering.”
Some explained littering as an act of spite against the government, saying that people litter even if they’re standing next to a rubbish bin.
Other themes that emerged were that littering happens because of an absence of infrastructure, resources and waste removal; that a lack of education and awareness is blame; and that some people litter because of their personalities and value systems.
According to the department of forestry, fisheries and the environment (DFFE), South Africans generate more than 50million tonnes of general waste a year, with plastic remaining a major problem.
Where to from here?
According to Schenck and her fellow researchers, there were three specific themes to participants’ suggestions.
The first was to ensure the provision of services and sufficient and appropriate facilities and waste infrastructure. “To assist residents to manage waste and prevent littering, appropriate and accessible infrastructure is needed,” the paper suggested.
Another suggestion from residents was to “establish collaboration with and within the communities”. Suggestions were made for “collaboration between the municipality and the community towards a cleaner environment”.
Said Schenck: “Residents do not only see area cleaning as a municipal responsibility, but an opportunity for community engagement.”
Lastly, she said, “one of the major suggestions made by the participants was to use the potential for income generation”.
Ideas included: “Create jobs in waste removal. If the community cleans the areas themselves, they will not litter where they have cleaned”; “Municipality can hire local people to clean the town each and every day”; “They can put people in positions to work in certain areas ... people will benefit from it”; and “Projects for recycling of waste”.
The non-caring constructed theme continues in the participants’ reported experiences of a government [local and national] that lacks care for residents Report