IN A NUTSHELL: A job well done on keeping Newcastle clean

Following much complaining during the past months in the local press, the general cleanliness of the town has greatly improved, to the point that I feel that the cleansing department of our municipality should be congratulated on a job well done!

ALSO READ: Letter to the editor: Why don’t Newcastillians support local business?

In past months, the arrival in Newcastle via the Memel Road was greeted with papers, bottles and general trash in clumps along both verges. Now it seems as if a concerted has been made to bundle the refuse into garbage bags and have them collected before some mischievous gremlins come around and redistribute the bag`s contents.

The streets in town look cleaner, and it is either due to the improved cleaning regimen or that citizens have at last wakened to the benefit of putting papers etc into the litter bins provided. The introduction of the “new” garbage collection system is going to be quite a step forward in the fight against irresponsible garbage disposal. Dividing the refuse into waste and items that can be recycled sounds really wonderful, and definitely a positive step forward.

In our modern shopping culture, the bane of our lives is the plastic bag, which becomes a veritable ogre that despoils the countryside and is a problem wherever it lands. At one of our neighbouring countries` point of entry, which happened to be adjacent to the local rubbish tip, it had such a proliferation of blue plastic bags in the thorn trees, that is was jokingly referred to as the national flag! I see that Kenya has banned the plastic bag and manufacturers of the bags may get jail time, a fine or both.

READ: LETTER: True friends are difficult to find in this day and age

The paper grocery bag which predates the plastic bag, were naturally degradable or could be burned after use, but they unfortunately need trees for them to be manufactured, although I am certain the paper bag can be produced from recycled paper, which means less paper ending up in the rubbish dump.

Here on Earth, as intelligent and inventive beings, we are forever inventing work-place gadgets and things along with items for house and home, and for personal use but we seem to not consider how we recycle the particular item once it has come to the end of its usable work-cycle, for example car batteries, car tyres, television sets and computer screens. Some of the billions of dollars, and the thinking manhours of the brilliant minds spent on finding another place to live in the universe, should be channelled into finding solutions for our Earth. Our home.

Why I ask, can the clever minds on our planet, with huge funding, rather not clean up our home, in place of trying to find another space rock to inhabit and pollute and despoil in our truly tried and tested human inimitable way? The logic eludes me.

Commentary by Trevor Barnes

Also remember to visit our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages.

Remember to read our WhatsApp disclaimer.

You can also email our offices on Reveshni Douglas at reveshni@caxton.co.za or newsun@caxton.co.za Bruce Douglas at Newed2@caxton.co.za Tersia Gopi at newed@caxton.co.za Zianne Leibrandt at ncschools@caxton.co.za