While travelling or walking around, we must have come across waste littered and dumped in our environment. On land, in the sea or other water bodies, and even close to roads, this is experienced, posing a great threat to our immediate environment, the atmosphere at large and even our health. We also see these littering activities with people throwing stuff out of their cars on the road or beside it as they travel.
These actions need to be called to order for the wrong they are and the environmental hazard they pose. In some places, this is well addressed with laws set in place and defaulters prosecuted for breaking them. While we see mass dumping and littering of wastes on lands, beside roads and on seas, major and big companies perpetrating these actions often go without repercussions, whereas individuals who fall guilty aren't so lucky.
Is it luck, or is the law just being lenient to these companies for some reason? It goes beyond luck, I guess. And this begs the question, why is the law seemingly lenient to these big companies while individuals could face the consequences of the same action? Also, is this a good model, and what does this mean for fairness and application of the law? If it's wrong for a person to do it, why isn't it so with these major companies?
First of all, wrong is wrong. It's good and important to clearly state that. Be it an individual doing it, or a big, major company, wrong remains wrong. To the person who litters; as we've seen in some of our communities, this is being done by individuals, it's wrong and should be addressed as such. Many communities face this issue caused by themselves, and we see the effects in blocked drainage, flooded roads sometimes, and health-related issues.
The bone of contention here however is the biased treatment when this same harmful action is carried out by a different entity. If it's wrong for a person to do it, it's ultimately wrong for a company too. Perhaps, it's even a bigger wrong when coming from these companies. Individuals might do this due to the failure of good systems to put things in place for proper waste management, these big companies can provide their own waste management system.
While they can do that, what do they do instead? They dump waste into the environment, affecting thousands of lives and properties and face no repercussions for doing so. What does this mean in the long run? They'll continue doing it, causing harm to more lives, property and the environment. Come to think of it, waste dumped by these major companies is usually large and massive, meaning greater effects, yet they go without facing repercussions.
As established, it's wrong to litter and dump waste into the environment, regardless of who does it, not taking away responsibility from doing the right thing from one entity by amplifying that of the other. It's also about addressing the issue at hand and the magnitude that might be ignored. As individuals who litter could be prosecuted by authorities, the big companies dumping waste into the environment shouldn't be left off the hook.
Image is AI generated.