Are we a nation of litter louts? Has the plastic bag become our national flower? In this latest #SliceofGasant, columnist Gasant Abarder laments the national pastime of littering at some of our most important natural resources.
Abarder, who recently launched his book, Hack with a Grenade, is among the country’s most influential media voices. Catch his weekly column here, exclusive to Cape {town} Etc.
When I was a kid in the 80s there was an ostrich puppet character called Zibi that used to remind us to ‘Zap it in a Zibi bin’. The images of Zibi and his broomstick and dirtbin pals stuck with me. To this day I still know the tune and some lyrics of the awareness campaign that had me running to the TV every time.
Zibi discouraged me from being a litter lout like the morsjors bikers who threw their dirt all over the place in his ad.
Coincidentally, I got to know Zibi’s creator Dov Fedler who later became a cartoonist and celebrated his 82nd birthday last week.
Almost 40 years on I’m afraid we haven’t heeded Zibi’s call. In fact, I’d argue that the plastic bag is our national flower, not the protea. There is litter everywhere. On the verges of highways, blocking stormwater drains, and on our beaches.
My column about ‘Beach Day’ received a massive response. The column about the flocking of people who don’t traditionally go to the beach and the complaints of littering by traditional beach goers struck a chord. I deliberately left the complaints about littering out to tackle on another day.
Today is that ‘another’ day.
We’re in danger of being labelled the Morsjors Nation instead of the Rainbow Nation. It’s a bitter pill to swallow when we have some of the most beautiful natural attractions all over this country. I’ve traveled to many places around the world – some far less attractive than home. It seems that here we love to litter, leaving it to others to pick up after us.
Back to the beach. The Abarders finally had a beach day on a milder day because we knew it wouldn’t be packed. It was so mild there were even beach chairs and umbrellas left to hire at Camps Bay well after lunch time.
The water was amazing and did the trick because it was deceptively hot. While there, I collected a dangerously sharp fragment of a broken beer bottle that had luckily not impaled a bather yet. There was also a large bag that used to carry ice. And an old sloffie that had lost not only its mate but its owner too.
Scores of people that day had just left it for someone else to pick up and throw in the trash. Someone like me, who remembered Zibi’s message.
I’m no conservationist but I’ve watched enough David Attenborough documentaries to know that it takes thousands of years for plastic to disintegrate. But worse is that our sea life pays a heavy price for our bad habits.
I can just hear Attenborough’s narration: “Here lies the common plastic bag. Made in a number of varieties and colours, they reflect the branding of supermarket chains. These are not exotic vegetation but rather alien. They can withstand the most torrid conditions and multiply without mating. They have no predators. And they crowd out the indigenous national flower of South Africa, the Protea.
Add a dramatic, pregnant pause before Attenborough resumes: “Forget sharks and killer whales. This resilient alien flower has become the biggest predator of marine life.”
I was most annoyed when paper straws were introduced by fast food outlets. They haven’t quite cracked one that can stand up to a fizzy drink and not go squishy before you’re even halfway through your favourite beverage.
My environmentally-conscious daughter insisted we buy reusable stainless steel straws. They’re not cheap but do the trick. She had learnt about the plight of the sea turtle at school. Coffees shops are also increasingly making available reusable coffee cups for your daily fix, encouraging you to rather use these than a styrofoam, plastic or paper cup.
What brought me back to beach day was that the traditional beach-goers had complained that the non-traditional beach folk were what Zibi called morsjorse. The day the Abarders spent at the beach wasn’t exactly a beach day. The behaviour of beach goers suggested they were regulars who knew their low from their high tides.
The traditional beachgoers are the ones usually left cleaning up and suggest too that the litter could come from different sources like what we chuck down drains. I’ve travelled to much poorer countries that don’t have a litter problem. I’d hate to think it’s part of our heritage to gooi cigarette stompies and uneaten takeaways all over the place.
The kids seem to be more environmentally conscious than us grown-ups. What we leave behind for them and their kids will be an indictment on us. I would hate for them to know it was a plastic bag that killed my pal Zibi when he begged us to zap it in a Zibi blik.
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Picture: Unsplash