By Hajra Iftikhar

In present age of advancements, it seems that littering should be a dilemma of the past. Regrettably, it is still a big problem for the world. People litter for lots of reasons; for instance, because they do not feel themselves responsible for taking care of the environment, because they believe someone else will take off the litter, or because there is already so much litter in an area so they might think that one more piece will not create much difference. If you feel littering as a problem and you are concerned about it in your area, you can set example for others by not littering, also you can guide others to use bins for wasting material instead of littering.

People say, firstly do something then guide others for doing the same. Therefore, the best approach you can use to discourage people from littering is setting a good example. Do not throw your waste on the ground, pick up waste you see and dispose of it in the trash when you see it, and do not throw any litter out of your car. Moreover, explain others how litter that they throw on the ground may not seem like a great deal, but that litter is usually blown around until it ends up in a stream, river, or the ocean causing bad results as it can harm or even kill many animals that might ingest or are caught in litter.

Folks! It may be appealing to go point out that littering is terrible, but they may get provokes into a physical confrontation if you catch them on a bad day. Therefore, it is better to pick up the trash they left and dispose of it yourself. May be they feel ashamed. However, do you think it is all enough, if you do it alone? You are thinking right! It is NO!

You know what there are many states in world where one can report people for littering this means that if anyone is accused of littering then he/she can be fined or punished according to the nature of offence made. However, in Pakistan, law implementation is weak therefore, it should be strict. In addition, there should be litter prevention program in country.

People will be less expected to litter if they have convenient places to put their garbage. If you are going to start working on litter prevention, you can contact the district government of your city to provide bins in streets. In many cities of Pakistan, there has been arrangement of waste trunks so people should throw litter in it.

To resolve littering problem as a whole it should be a key to educate people about the importance and way of disposing of trash properly. Do you know that when we dispose of litter properly it can be recycled and even it can be a source of energy generation like electricity and gas? By a simple gesture, one can serve the nation.

Litter takes tremendous amount of resources to collect, dispose and recycle that has been produced on daily basis. Millions of rupees have allocated and spent on such huge tasks. Moreover, the remarkable financial implications that it imposes on society, litter also causes havoc on our beautiful environment. It also threatens health, not only of humans but also of animals, birds and plants, in many different ways that one may not be aware.

Citizen action represents future and the strength of numbers. Rather than despair about how little difference our one gesture can make, we should keep doing our part. Instead of blaming others, we should keep our society neat and clean because we cannot keep our house dirty and fill it with rubbish. Therefore, we should not litter up our dear Pakistan, as it is our homeland. Pakistan is our identity so keep it clean and love Pakistan.

PUblished in Young Nation magazine on January 7, 2017