Comment
Waste a terrible thing to mind
By Earle Gale (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-03-03 11:18
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The row over whether to burn Beijing's trash or continue to bulldoze it into landfills the size of small countries has smoldered for years and, despite all the trash-talking, we are nowhere near a resolution.
On one hand, incinerator fans say, for the cost of a match, we can end all of that environmental damage, groundwater pollution and save the wasted space devoted to stinky garbage dumps by simply reducing our refuse to ashes.
And on the other, incinerator foes say the toxins that would spew from those garbage burners would poison our atmosphere and give our grandchildren cancer, too high a price.
They are both right but miss the point.
The solution to Beijing's festering garbage problem is for all of us to make less garbage. Our problem would only be half as serious if we only threw away half as much rubbish.
One of the things that pains me as I walk around this great city is the way a minority of people seem to think it is all right to drop whatever they don't want onto the sidewalk or wherever they happen to be at the time.
I've even seen people delight in littering to such an extent that they have not merely let garbage fall to the floor but have thrown it high into the air in an extravagant show more befitting the scattering of confetti after a wedding than a shameful display of disrespect to our city.
Come on, people.
There is no excuse for such behavior. Garbage bins are all over the place. How hard can it be to take a few steps with that empty pop bottle and drop it into the trash can?
No doubt, those who litter think the army of sweepers and picker-uppers who prowl our city will scoop up the trash and cart it off and, of course, they are right.
But the slobbish behavior, reminiscent of a teenager who has grown accustomed to having his mother pick up after him, reveals the way many people in this city think about garbage - quite simply, they don't.
They don't care what happens to it after it leaves their hands. That strongly suggests they also do not care how much garbage they create.
If people go on acting this way, it really won't matter whether we build incinerators or carve out new landfills, we won't be able to keep up with the mountains of rubbish.
So, before we make a decision to fire up the burners or fuel up the compactors, I'd like to see the authorities do all they can to persuade people to toss their bad habits.
We could start by enforcing hefty fines for littering, just to send a message to people that they should be thinking about what they do with their garbage.
And we could continue by looking for ways to persuade businesses to reduce packaging so consumers are left with much less trash on their hands in the first place.
Maybe companies that
do a good job of cutting down on packaging could be given some sort of green accreditation that brings with it tax breaks or other financial incentives.
The local government also has a role and should find ways to expand and promote its recycling initiatives.
Another good idea is advertising to remind people of how they should behave and of how unacceptable it is to go on treating our city, and the world beyond it, like something that cannot be ruined and destroyed.
Something must change and I'm sure I don't have all the answers but I hope better brains than mine are being racked right now to find ways to get people to throw away less garbage and give us all some breathing room.
The writer is METRO's copy editor
