Littering Habits As A Problem In Malaysia

Littering is a common bad habit that has been increasing with actions such as throwing away or dropping the rubbish on the ground in public places instead of bins or wastepaper baskets. Littering has become a major problem that been highlighted over the years in Malaysia. From the statement studied by Jambeck J.R from 2015 to 2018, Malaysia is ranked 8 out of 20 in the world about mass of mismanaged plastic waste in the article “ Earth Day 2018”. What makes Malaysia to be listed in number eighth in the world for misconduct plastic waste? What are the causes that made Malaysia become hot listed for this issue? According to Geller in 1980, litter is defined as mislaid solid waste from any scraps. Meanwhile, based on Andrews B.R in 1903, the habit has been defined as a more or less fixed way of thinking, willing or feeling obtained past the previous repetition of a mental experience. “Litter poses a number of important environmental, social, and aesthetic problems. As an environmental problem, litter is a substantial source of contamination. Misplaced plastics, Styrofoam, paper, glass, and many other commonly used consumer materials accumulate in the environment, posing a number of harmful environmental consequences. The social problems related to litter include safety hazards, fire hazards, human health hazards, and indirect health hazards from bacteria, rats, roaches, and mosquitoes that are attracted to litter. In addition, litter is predictive of changing crime rates in a community” (Brown, Perkins, & Brown, 2004) . The littering habits problem had become very serious. In this context, there are a few causes, effects and solutions that have been examined.

There are two causes for the reason why people do littering. Firstly, people do littering because of their self-attitude. As a human being, it’s almost impossible to not generate or produce any wasted. So, They choose to take the easiest way to eliminate the rubbish by throwing the rubbish at the street, lake and river. For example, the common thing that most people always do is throw rubbish from the window car without feeling shame. As they always have this attitude, it will turn from attitude to habit. Therefore, laziness that have inside among the people also can make them intensive to a littering behaviour which is they feel lazy to find the nearest dustbin to throw the trash proper inside it. Based on Ojedokun and Adenkule in 2013 said that dropping litter became a habit because this attitude is an instinctive and repetitive behaviour. This statement strongly agrees that the main cause of littering behaviour because of their self habit. Most people have this attitude is because that they are lacking of awareness about the environment to appreciate more of nature.

Peer influence is the second point that can lead to littering habits. Litterbugs throw garbage anywhere even when there has a dustbin nearby. As we know, most of people are starting willing to do something when they saw other people do. In this case, it shows that from habits, it can make followers. For instance, people do littering because of their attitude and behaviour of human surroundings. From year to year littering habits gonna be increasing because they keep making followers to do this littering activity. From a small piece of waste littering that continuously can make slowly become huge and smelly around us. This is what are should we feared it. “In a field experiment, they showed people are littering more when in a littered environment. Cialdini et al. (1990) explained that the observed degree of littered describes the norm of other people”. From this statement, it is proven that peer influence is can give rise to littering habits.

The effect of littering habits in the community may affect everyone around us due to a single person. The first effect of littering is littering can harm living things. Based on what Orrock Stanley said in 2017, littering can affect individuals in society and also animals. From misplaced junk, it can go to the nearby drain and the sewage. When a lot of pieces pile on in one sewage it can stop water flow in that sewage. Therefore it can make the water level rises up and will cause a flood. Thus, it can potentially lead to many diseases that can be easily contracted such as typhoid fever, cholera, leptospirosis and hepatitis. Moreover, land animals will lose their habitat to live as the flood destroy their places. For aquatic fauna, it can lead to extinction as they will eat the plastic wastes that drift to the sea. Furthermore, littering habits can lead to a wasteful of money to the country. This is because the recovery cost of the damage is high. “Litter removal and disposal from the environment costs money which could be used for another purpose, COH may increase rates in order to employ more workers to clean up the streets.”(Fuggle and Rabie,2009). From what Fuggle and Rabie said, when the place has been polluted because of littering, the country need to pay a lot of workers to recover the place and also need to find the cure for new diseases due to the pollution. If the site is not full of trashes, the money can be used to improve or develop new infrastructures that can bring a lot of benefits for us.

Every disease must have its cure, every problem must have its solution. The solution for littering habits is every individual need to make a change by being a good role model to others. This is because it can give good influences to each other until they feel that littering is a forbidden thing to do as it gives big implications to the environment. As the article that been written by Keep Tennessee Beautiful, we need to play a good role for others by setting an example for others, especially family, co-workers, friends and children by using trash and recycling receptacles and not littering. ( n.d ) . As a result, it can deliver a huge impact on positive vibes which they will choose to use bins instead of littering. Lastly, making changes by being a good role model to others for every individual is a good reasonable solution for littering habits.

Using stop littering signs is also one of the solutions for littering habits. To illustrate, “putting up a sign is very creative of putting a stop to littering. The signs should be placed in high littered areas and those that are prone to littering such as the streets, near publics, transportations. Routes used on daily basis by pedestrians and commuters also deserve “ stop littering signs” to constantly remind people that littering is a bad thing and should thus be avoided”. (Rinkesh, n.d ) . From the statement given on the article, we can change people by making campaigns to not littering. It is a very effective way to put signs in every street, so it can remind people wherever and whenever they intend to do littering. We believe that using stop littering signs is the solution for littering habits.

In conclusion, littering is a routine that need to be fixed as it become a serious issue in every part of the nation. It is a social construct where the idea has been created and accepted by people in a society. Whereas litter is simply waste in the “wrong” place, littering habit is an action where wastes end up in the wrong place instead of bins. Therefore, every individual must seriously take this issue to play role in changing the world into a better one to improve the quality of the environment from pollutions. For instance, caution others when seeing them litter in a gentle way by reminding them that littering has significance which includes flooding due to blocked roads. As a parent, teach the children by developing good moral values to prevent the habits of littering because they will grow into life-long practices. Using stop littering signs through campaigns can spread awareness to enhance and discourage littering behaviours that are unacceptable. And also, bringing out the reason why littering is not rightful through why littering is not appropriate through headlining its bad effect may make the messages more acceptable. Media campaigns should be used as information in the past has shown that they have been as they reach many people at a time. Hence, the daily lives of people will be better as the environment’s quality improve. And, the future generation can also feast their eyes by seeing our beautiful nature existed. A wise word from Hellen Keller said that “ The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched so they must be felt with the heart”.Therefore, we need to sincerely change our habits and appreciate nature.