A Reddit user on the r/napanee subreddit expressed their disappointment with their community after encountering litter in the neighborhood forest.
“Ashamed of my fellow Canadians that dump litter in nature/rural areas especially. You can do better!” the post caption read.
Photo Credit: Reddit
The image shared showed a used Tim Hortons coffee cup and an empty Tim Hortons bag left on the ground in a forested area.
While it may seem like a minor issue, litter is the most common and, unfortunately, widely accepted form of pollution because it is often perceived as less detrimental to the environment than other sources, such as oil, gas, and coal.
But in fact, litter can lead to a host of environmental issues.
Most litter is made of plastic, like the Tim Hortons bag, and is therefore not biodegradable. In fact, it can often take thousands of years for just one piece of plastic to fully break down.
Depending on its size, it can begin to leak microplastics into surrounding soil or local waterways, posing potential health risks to fish and to anyone who drinks the water.
“Well, we can blame industry for making environmentally unsustainable product packaging available, as it’s sort of a racket for the for-profit garbage and recycling industry, that is demonstrably ineffective. The only accessible and reasonable solution is packaging that, should it be disposed of improperly, does not harm the environment,” one user suggested under the post.
Thankfully, scientists have been working for years to make so-called “bioplastics” publicly available. Bioplastics use materials that break down naturally under certain conditions, similar to compost, into the soil if left behind.
They have even discovered a new type of bacteria that seems able to eat and break down plastic into its natural components over time.
However, actual progress toward a cleaner, safer future for all of us is to understand that respecting nature is the priority, and simply accepting litter as a regular part of the scenery will not push us forward, regardless of how many scientific innovations we achieve.
Taking action to clean up litter wherever and whenever you see it and raising awareness can make a massive difference in fighting back against that normalcy and making progress toward real change.
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