Municipal Waste Generated Over ONE Weekend???
Photo 1
Photo 2
Photo 3
According to WorldAtlas,2016 using World Bank data, Trinidad and Tobago was listed number 1 for "Waste Generation Per Capita" That's right number one! At first I thought this was a lie but then a first hand situation made me question...
Upon returning to my apartment situated at Old Tim St Augustine after a weekend home I was greeted with the sight of literally overflowing garbage bins on the outside of my building. I took a walk down the street only to discover this was apparently a trend... outside of each building were more and more bins being overflowed with garbage! Some buildings had a proper place assigned for their garbage while others simply placed them in garbage bags along the street. This made me stop and wonder... where had all of this waste come from? How long has it been there? How long would it remain there? Rats and cockroaches were seen in abundance around these garbage which showed it attracted dangerous vectors. I was now extremely worried about my health! not only mind but each student who live around the campus of the University. We walk these streets everyday unknowing that vermin infest these areas and walk on the same street as us. Their bacteria are on our shoes and upon entering our apartments we bring said bacteria in. This to me was serious cause for concern! Again i questioned where had this waste come from? Students such as myself usually leave their apartment on Friday and return Sunday...had this garbage been sitting around since Friday evening? Despite that the quantity of garbage produced in one weekend was very alarming!
As stated before in the previous post, apart from being aesthetically displeasing there are health
risks associated with this accumulation of garbage, the garbage attracts vectors such as
cockroaches and rats seen first hand! and for people living in these areas this can be a major
problem as it leads to vector related diseases. (A.E. Onyido, P.O. Okolo, M.O.
Obiukwu and E.S. Amadi, 2009). Also as a result of this stagnant rubbish the
air quality can be diminished by foul smelling odor produced by the garbage.
According to Childe, 1950 urbanization leads to a generation of large "surpluses". This surplus generated leads to major wastage as seen from the above photos. Due to the large population associated with urban areas a large amount of consumption is done and the waste products of this consumption are then discarded. This accumulates to a large amount as seen again in the photos, again this waste was generated over a weekend.
Something surely needs to be done about this otherwise serious health concerns would arise (see article from express below on the various vector borne diseases). This needs to be a collective effort between not only the government but people themselves. Persons need to adopt better practices such as reducing the amount they use, reusing what can be reused and recycling what can be recycled. Governments can assist this situation by designating more garbage collection for urban areas even throughout the weekend.
Photo 4
It must be noted that not only does the government have to increase the garbage collection days but also ensure better collection is done. As seen in photo 4 waste was left back even after garbage collectors passed the area.
The following article speaks about vector borne diseases due to improper garbage disposal:
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/letters/Our_deadly_littering_habit-115333989.html
The following are articles which speak about the amount of waste produced by Trinidad and Tobago:
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/20160309/news/tt-has-a-trash-problem
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/20160321/editorial/waste-worse-than-corruption
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/Separate_your_garbage-102405714.html
http://www.worldatlas.com/articles/countries-generating-the-most-trash-per-capita.html
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