A little less litter

Everyone knows it, it is everywhere. Actually, it is so common we hardly see it anymore: street litter. Whether you cycle through the city, take a stroll through the woods or hurry to your next class on campus, you will be sure to come across all kinds of garbage. Papers, cans, glass bottles (usually broken and very annoying when by bike), cigarette stubs, plastic bags and any kind of plastic wrapping you can imagine.

Personally, I prefer the Dutch word ‘zwerfafval’. A very literal translation is ‘homeless litter’ a.k.a. litter that is roaming the streets because it has no home to go to. Okay, maybe it is a little far-fetched to consider a trash can a home (then again, it is for Oscar the Grouch). The point is that trash is supposed to be in a trash can. When it is not, it not only looks disgusting, but endangers animals. There are plenty of disturbing YouTube videos that show how animals are harmed and often killed by litter.

As easy as it is to drop your trash wherever you are, it is apparently hard to change this annoying habit. To turn picking up other people’s trash into something fun, the ‘zwerfie’ was introduced, a variation of the popular selfie, showing yourself with a piece of ‘zwerfafval’. It has even been claimed that if 25% of Dutch people pick up one piece of litter every day, the Netherlands will be clean within three days. Though the calculation supporting this claim will likely remain a mystery, the simple philosophy behind it is appealing: if you do it together, even a little effort can have a big effect. From a little less litter to a litterless environment, one piece at a time…

Johanna Gröne (29, German) studied Health Care, Ethics & Policy at TilburgU. She works for a health insurance company and is a member of the Gemeenteraad (Tilburgs local council).

_Advertentie.