The Tribune

Adrian White may have been trying to offer a practical solution to roadside littering, but he managed to put his foot firmly in his mouth along the way.

The St Anne’s MP wants roadside garbage bins fitted with backboards so motorists can throw their rubbish into them without leaving their vehicles. In explaining his proposal, he described people who toss waste from their cars as “clean people” who simply do not want the rubbish around them.

By that reasoning, someone who sweeps the dirt from their house onto a neighbour’s doorstep deserves congratulations for good housekeeping.

Mr White should reconsider both the description and the example his proposal sets. A person who keeps a spotless car by throwing food containers and bottles onto the street is making a deliberate choice to leave somebody else with the mess. There is nothing admirable, or particularly difficult to understand, about that behaviour.

More public bins would certainly be useful in places where proper disposal facilities are lacking. Mr White also recognised the need for regular collection, which is essential. But somewhere between identifying that need and proposing a backboard for passing motorists, the expectation of basic personal responsibility disappeared.

Are we really asking so much of an adult to keep an empty container in a vehicle until reaching a suitable place to dispose of it? The food travelled comfortably enough before it was eaten. The packaging can survive the rest of the journey.

The backboard proposal also raises obvious practical questions. What happens when the driver misses? Who retrieves the bottle that strikes the edge and falls into the road? Where will vehicles slow down or stop safely? A public waste system should be designed around safe disposal, not the hope that motorists have a good throwing arm.

It is tempting to laugh at the image. The underlying problem is less amusing, especially for the people who live beside a stretch of road that others have decided is their dumping ground. They wake up to the containers, bags and bottles. Sanitation crews and volunteers then spend their time clearing rubbish left by people who knew perfectly well what they were doing.

Those workers deserve more respect than the assumption that they will always be there to clean up after us.

Members of Parliament help establish what conduct a society considers acceptable. Mr White did not need to condemn Bahamians collectively to make his point. He could have argued for better facilities while plainly telling those who litter to stop. Instead, describing them as clean people risks making their selfishness sound reasonable.

We should be especially careful about that message when children are watching. A child who sees an adult throw rubbish out of a car learns that keeping your own possessions tidy is enough, and that the space everyone shares is somebody else’s concern. No school clean-up campaign can easily undo a lesson repeated on the journey home.

Government must provide dependable collection, accessible disposal sites and properly maintained public bins. Businesses should take responsibility for waste around their premises. Authorities should act consistently against littering and illegal dumping. These duties belong alongside the responsibility of each person to dispose of their own rubbish properly.

Mr White can still make a useful contribution. He should revisit the proposal with sanitation workers and road-safety professionals, identify locations where bins can be safely accessed and ensure there is a funded collection plan. He should also correct the suggestion that people who dirty the country to keep their cars clean are practising any worthwhile form of cleanliness.

Bahamians deserve better than roadsides treated as the space between a car window and a backboard.

Put the bins where people need them. Expect people to use them properly. And stop making excuses for those who choose to leave their rubbish for everybody else.