newsletter_2008_1.pdf - 5.84 MB - The Baltic Sea Project

Photos: Rūta Jociūtė-Žolynienė
Once I was walking in a park and drinking a bottle of lemonade.
When I finished the bottle, I threw it down and went
on. Suddenly, I heard someone calling me:
“Hey, please don’t leave me here, keep the environment
clean,” the voice said. “Protect the environment.” I turned
around and saw that the empty waste bottle was talking
to me.
“I have more exciting things to do than collecting waste and
putting it in the waste bin,” I said in a sarcastic manner.
“There are so many people like you who don’t care about
the environment, about the world, and about themselves.
People want to destroy the world as soon as possible…”
“Leave me alone, waste bottle!” I said and wanted to go.
“Whenever people can go on foot, they will surely use their
car; and whenever they can throw waste in special places
intended for that, they will certainly not do it…”
“I don’t care at all! I’ll leave waste wherever I want. I’ll use
my car if I want to, even though I’m only going a hundred
metres!” I shouted, as no one can tell me what to do, let
alone a waste bottle!
“You are wrong to say that. You cause damage not only to
yourself and others, but to the environment as well,” the
waste bottle said.
“But I only threw down one bottle…”
“Don’t you care at all about what’s going on around you?
If everyone left a bottle in the environment every day, all
we’d see around us just a few days later would be waste.”
“Well, we have waste collection vehicles and street cleaners
who collect waste,” I said.
“And what would happen if no one cared about that? What
would we do, if no one collected waste? Would we live with
waste around, as if nothing had happened?”
“I don’t know. Leave me alone, I don’t care!” I shouted.
“Well, you should care, because this can happen in just a
few years. You’ll go to a park and see waste around you,
go down the street and see waste around you, and there
FOR cOnsIDERATIOn
What can be done to
reduce the Amount
of Waste left in the
Environment?
will be plenty of waste next to your home, too! Have you
ever thought where all that waste goes? Do you know that
waste damages not only the environment, but you, too?”
“It only takes up space at waste dumps. Well, it also stinks
as it decomposes. That’s all the damage…”
“As waste decomposes, it not only stinks, but also has a
negative impact on people’s health. As much as 90 percent
of waste is next to forests and spreads toxic substances.”
“So what, I don’t live next to a forest! So waste isn’t dangerous
for me.”
“Have you ever thought that you’re not the only one living
on earth, and that there are three billion other people?
Don’t you care about them? Don’t you care that waste
might be dangerous for your children or grandchildren, as
the amounts of waste continue to increase?”
“So what should I do? Should I work as a street cleaner, go
after people and collect waste?” I asked sarcastically. “Let
those who suffer from waste take care of it.”
“Why don’t you, people, see what’s around you? You’re a
human being, but you think in a primitive manner. You
don’t care what’s going on around you!”
“I do care about what’s going on around me, but I don’t
care about some waste. And I’m not going to change.
There must be a ministry of waste or something like that
responsible for waste, right?”
“Would you like to know who’s responsible for waste? For
the time being, we all are. In other words – nobody. Many
people think exactly the way you do. They believe that
waste is not their business and that it should be collected
by someone else.”
“Let the authorities take care of waste. It’s not our business!”
I said decisively.
“Yet the authorities don’t care either. Sure, there are some
people who do care, but as soon as they see that it’s a difficult
duty, they abandon it. Therefore, you should care
about what to do with waste, for your own well-being.
Do you know that each resident in Lithuania throws away
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