EcoWaste Coalition: Don't Throw Rubbish Out of Your Car Window! (Group cites German cyclist for chasing passenger who tossed garbage out of van)
German Frank
Schuengel picked this up and returned it to the van from which it was thrown (photo by Frank Schuengel).
“Please be considerate… never throw waste out of
vehicles.”
The EcoWaste Coalition, a waste and pollution watch
group, has called upon all car drivers as well as passengers not to throw any
trash on the road.
The group’s latest plea against littering came on the
heels of a video post last week by Frank Schuengel, a German national working
in the Philippines, showing him chasing and returning a plastic bag of trash to
a van from which it came from.
According to his post, Schuengel was cycling to work when
he saw the passenger of a van in front of him threw rubbish out of the car
window and onto the street. The incident
took place at the Makati-Mandaluyong Bridge.
“You should care when someone throws garbage out of a car
because that’s how decent human beings should react,” wrote Schuengel in a
related post.
“And as flattering as everyone’s reaction is, the
pollution problem in this country won’t be solved by one bloke on a bike. It
will take all of us to make a difference,” he added
The EcoWaste Coalition lauded Schuengel’s good deed as
the group echoed the need for all people to be involved in protecting the
environment against waste and pollution.
“We thank Mr. Schuengel for doing the right thing, and
for reminding each and every road user of our shared responsibility to maintain
the cleanliness and safety of our streets and communities,” said Ochie
Tolentino, Zero Waste Campaigner, EcoWaste Coalition.
“Please be considerate of other people and our common
environment. Never throw waste out of
vehicles,” she said.
“Regardless of its type --- biodegradable or
non-biodegradable, plastic or non-plastic, wet or dry, big or small --- rubbish
tossed out of the car window is pollution that can make the surroundings ugly
and even harm public health and the environment,” she said.
Garbage thrown out of the car, Tolentino said, can be
blown by the wind or carried by water to storm drains and into the seas and
oceans.
“The things that we recklessly throw away may even reach
the oceans and put the lives of ocean animals in grave danger,” said Tolentino as she recalled the 40 kilos
of plastic waste in the stomach of a beached whale found dead last March 2019
in Mabini, Compostela Valley.
"Government regulators need to enforce our national
and local waste laws, corporations need to stop producing products in wasteful packaging,
and citizens need to choose eco-friendly products and bid goodbye to single-use
plastics, and to littering,” she pointed out.
The group noted the report released last April 9 by the
Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) stating that it apprehended a total
of 4,316 violators during its anti-littering operations in the first quarter of
2019.
MMDA environmental enforcers caught the litterbugs in Monumento, EDSA-North, Cubao, Ortigas,
Guadalupe, Buendia, EDSA-Taft, and other
places in the national capital region.
Among the most littered items, as per the MMDA, were
candy wrappers, cigarette filters, papers, and plastics.
-end-
Reference:
https://visor.ph/author/frankschuengel/
https://visor.ph/wisdom/you-should-care-when-someone-throws-garbage-out-of-a-car/
https://www.facebook.com/visor.ph/videos/581238822374428
http://mmda.gov.ph/54-news/news-2019/3726-april-9-2019-4-316-litterbugs-nabbed-in-first-quarter.html
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