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A dirty business

The mindset about rubbish in this city is very disturbing on some level. We are probably not going to win any town of the year awards anytime soon even if everything else was perfect and all we had was a littering problem.

If you take a casual Sunday drive around town like they used to do 50 years ago then something becomes very apparent.

eMalahleni does not have a single fast food restaurant that sells a one litre milkshake and that there is a lot of rubbish lying around including 500ml paper cups form people that had to order two small milkshakes.
On every open stand and overgrown field we see plastic bags pilled on top of each other and a blanket of garbage. Especially places like Klipfontein Dam. I want to gag every time I think of what might be in that little collection of water. I know that waste disposal in a worldwide problem but at least in the rest of the world they are aware that it is a problem.

Here I see people throw the packaging of an entire family meal out the passenger window of the car on a suburban road. A half eaten kids meal slamming against the windshield of the guy behind him. Out of habit that person turns on their wipers effectively covering their entire field of vision in secret sauce. How about dumping aborted foetuses in a rubbish bin?

People think that a bin is this magical device that blinks anything you do not want anymore out of existence. “So people actually come and collect these things and take it somewhere?” Indeed they do. “So rubbish I throw out of my window does not magically dissolve and turn into tree food?” they would ask.

Brian is sending this one back to the kitchen. It seems I have seasoned it with too much sarcasm apparently.
I just think it is unfair that other places in South Africa have municipal recycling projects and they know how to dispose of batteries correctly and they have the foresight to walk 10 meters to the nearest public dustbin to dispose of a chocolate wrapper. It is unfair and there seems to be nothing we can do about it.

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