Rubbish disposal is a problem

RUBBISH disposal is a problem that is creeping up all over Papua New Guinea.
Plastic bags, bottles, condoms as well as human and animal effluent have created an environmental, as well as health and hygiene nightmare for both humans and animals.
Humans, being responsible for it perhaps deserve the pollution, but it is a pity that fish and other marine life should be suffocated in plastic waste.
This is becoming a nightmare for authorities in coastal towns.
We have reported of rubbish overload along waterways, rubbish heaps in the middle of townships and the list goes on.
They are a big eye sore to all who work in or visit these towns.
The rubbish disposal problem is a problem that is creeping up all over Papua New Guinea.
Butibum village in Lae was flooded during the week due to drain blockage near the village, as a result of rubbish dumped into a drain near the road into the village.
Rubbish heaps at Gordon and in the middle of Boroko’s shopping malls keep filing up daily, regardless of the number of towns they are shipped off.
Rubbish is a by-product of human activity.
Responsible people will always discard their waste in their designated places – excrement in pit latrines, rubbish in tips, or burn them off whilst keeping homes and surrounds in clean and healthy states.
The state of our towns and cities show negligence, disrespect for self and others and a singular disdain for order and good health.
It shows a breakdown of discipline, order, control and management.
It is a symptom that not all is well in our society that the fundamentals are no longer being catered for.
When one ignores the basics of life such as personal hygiene, cleanliness, and order, one actually abandons the principles that guide healthy life.
One will then be infested with and invaded by pestilence, ill health, disrespect and ultimately untimely death.
Similarly a society that abandons the basics that keep a society functioning normally then the time is not too far ahead, if it is not already here, when such a society will be dysfunctional and ultimately fail or die.
There is no magic to reversing this trend.
It is as simple as taking out a broom and sweeping the room, the yard, and our own street frontage.
It is as simple as taking out our own rubbish and throwing them in proper areas if the town authority does not call around.
It is about each person and each corporation taking responsibility for its actions and in keeping their own premises clean.
The entire community should be involved and somewhere along the line all business houses should accept some responsibility to stop or reduce the use of plastic bags and to assist in providing rubbish bins around their stores with signs telling the public not to litter the place.
Rubbish does not just disappear when you toss them away.
Take a look around, plastic bags are everywhere, at the bus stops, along the roads and fences often abandoned and at the mercy of the wind direction.
And there the bags begin a new, practically eternal afterlife as a polluting nuisance.
The law banning the use of plastic bags is expected to come into effect on Nov 1.
In a country where the bilum and coconut baskets are works of art, it is a pity that Papua New Guinea is literally awash with plastic bags.