The festive season is characterised the world over by heavy spending.
Opinion by Chipo Masara
Considering the waste management system in Zimbabwe, the spending sprees might well mean adding on to the already rampant litter problem!
Going around the country, even in the most remote of areas, the generality of people in Zimbabwe are already in the most jovial of moods.
The reason for the high spirits is none other than the fast-approaching Christmas and New Year holidays. During this time of the year, most businesses that sell goodies can be assured of making a “killing”, as people would be in the spending mood.
I was in Mvurwi last week, a small town south of Harare and a local wholesale in the area was packed, as hordes of people hurried to do their early Christmas shopping, almost as if they were afraid the goodies might disappear.
Almost every child that I saw had one type or the other of goodies to munch on. It is during the festive season that most parents are known to be in a generous mood.
In a country that had suffered a major economic meltdown for a considerably long time, it is good to see people evidently enjoy their festive holidays once again.
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However, while most of us will be merrymaking, there would be some among us burdened by thoughts of what would await them after the festivities are done with.
The council cleaners for instance, know very well that during such a time of the year, their job is almost certain to be multiplied.
Littering is a problem that has for a long time bedevilled the local authorities, with no long-term solution in sight to the problem.
The proliferation of litter in the country has been attributed to, among other causes, the lack of sufficient bins in the country, the absence of a proper waste management policy, the loss of national pride and desire to keep the country clean, and the lack of knowledge on the adverse effects of littering on the environment and on people’s well-being.
For the city of Harare, which has lost most of its pleasantness through littering and a general disregard for city bylaws, littering is a huge problem.
The city cleaners have evidently been doing their job and need to be hailed, but sadly, their efforts almost always come to naught as places they would have cleaned almost immediately become litter-infested, again.
Some local organisations with a profound concern for the environment, most notable of which are Miracle Missions and Environment Africa, ran extensive clean-up campaigns that involved numerous occasions of volunteers gathering to clean up mostly the dirtiest parts of the capital city. However, the cleaned areas would soon be infested with litter, again.
So with littering being a problem of such high proportion in the country, one can imagine the effect the festive season that is upon us could have on the environment, especially with the shops being fully packed with all that may be required to make the time truly festive.
The fact that almost all groceries are sold packaged in all forms of material, does not make the problem any better. Plastic is the choice for most manufactures due to its light weight, durability and low cost.
We use plastic bags, bottles, cups, forks, spoons, straws, etc. And then there are toys, most of which are made from plastics.
Polystyrene, which is mostly used for packaging in Zimbabwe, can take hundreds of years to decay.
Unfortunately, most of the material left lying around often ends up in the country’s water sources, choking the water-based life forms and contaminating drinking water sources.
So it is with this in mind that as people merry-make, they should do it in a responsible manner without causing any more harm to an already degraded environment.
Wise waste disposal plan required It would be good if we could all have a sustainable waste disposal plan.
Although the refuse collection service is not one that many of us still remember, as it has been a long time since garbage had been collected from our residences, that is no reason to go around burning litter and tip-toeing at all kinds of ungodly hours to go dump garbage at unsuitable spots.
Reducing, re-using and recycling are three fundamentals that we need to strive for, even during this festive time, and beyond.
This festive season, may we not only be giving towards our loved ones, let us also give back to the environment we live in!
