6.02 Economics Honors - Littering and its Impact

Littering is an environmental issue that is becoming a bigger problem in my community. Litter has countless negative externalities that affect my community and the environment. One negative externality of excessive littering is harming animals' health. Certain animals could suffocate from litter it comes across. Garbage can seriously harm an animal if ingested as well. Litter can pollute the habitats of wildlife in the community and cause them to have serious health issues, such as being poisoned. Another externality of littering that most people probably do not think of is the attraction of mosquitos, which are responsible for hundreds of millions of cases of malaria.

Poverty in a community and littering are more related than you may realize. Excessive amounts of garbage on the streets and all over town is not something tourists enjoy and want to come back for. When a city has little or no tourism (because people don't want to vacation in a dirty, litter-filled city), it negatively affects that city's economy because they're losing a source of revenue. Since the economy is poor in the community, the citizens may have a poorer economic status as well because of the lack of tourism. It may be unexpected, but littering has a greater impact than just making the streets look a little dirty. Litter in your town can be hurting you and your city economically. 

Next time you go to drop an empty fast food box on the side of the road, think twice about what you're really doing. You're potentially endangering wildlife and even hurting the economic state of your town. It can be very easy to take responsibility of your contribution to the environmental improvement of your community if you just try. Be sure to throw all trash you have in a trash bin or recycling bin. If you want to make an even bigger impact, try doing activities like beach clean-ups, or joining or funding organizations that work towards cleaning up the community and preventing litter from having a negative impact on your community and environment.