What are the dangers of connecting garbage which is thrown in open area?
Answers
1. Can cause physical harm or injury to people
Litter can contain objects that can harm or cause physical injury to people namely needles, blades or broken glass. Throwing cigarette butts in the forest can also spark fires and destroy nearby properties and homes or even kill those who are trapped in the fire.
2. It can facilitate the spread of disease
Littering can encourage the spread of pest species and diseases. The trash can provide breeding ground for diseases and pass it between animals that eat it. If the trash collects water it may also harbor mosquitoes that are known to spread the deadly malaria disease in tropic regions. Toxic chemicals and disease causing microorganisms in the trash may also contaminate water systems and spread water-borne diseases which can negatively affect the health of both animals and humans if unclean or untreated water is consumed.
3. Pollutes the environment
Litter adversely affects the environment. Be it littering along the road, on the streets or by the litter bins, toxic materials or chemicals in the litter can be blown or washed into rivers, forest lands, oceans, lakes and creeks and eventually pollutes the waterways, land, forest areas, soils or aquatic environments.
Cigarette butts, for instance, contain toxic substances like arsenic which can contaminate soil and water. The great pacific garbage patch is another example, which is connected to marine plastic pollution. Litter can also reduce air quality due to the smell and toxic/chemical vapor emanating from the trash.
4. High clean-up costs
Millions of dollars is spent by municipalities annually in clean-up efforts to reduce littering. This makes littering a huge problem because money that would otherwise be used in progressive development is partly directed to waste management programs. Litter can also block storm water drainage systems and cause urban flooding which requires money for intervention and restoration.
5. It affects and can kill wildlife
Plastic litter has often been mistaken for food by both land and marine wildlife such as the herbivores, sea birds, turtles, and fish. When consumed by the animals, they reduce the stomach capacity since they can’t be digested. In the long-term it affects the animals’ eating habit, eventually killing the animal.