If you decide to go for a walk in Woodlands Historic Park in Melbourne, Australia, you may feel like you're walking through a landfill instead of nature. This Reddit post displayed several photos of dumped items throughout the park, even in its stream. It's such a problem that "many just shrug it off or ignore it," according to the original poster.
The Redditor continued by describing "broken styrofoam in the creek, debris scattered everywhere — it's a huge environmental hazard." They also mentioned reporting these incidents to the authorities, but the response has been slow.
As you look closely at the photos, you see empty paint buckets, cardboard, Styrofoam, plastic bags, tires, traffic cones, and wood on the grass and in the water. All these piles of trash can become havens for dangerous pests like rodents and snakes. It takes away from the value, beauty, and enjoyment of being in a park — after all, being in nature has been linked to better mental health and mood boosts.
The continent has recently recognized 750 new species (to add to its existing 150,000 species list), according to NPR. Many parks and streams are habitats for friendly wildlife that can ingest plastic and other litter by mistaking those items for food. Some also become entangled, which can injure or suffocate them.
Friendly wildlife can become prey to more dangerous pests that disrupt their nesting sites. Discarded tires also leach chemicals like benzene and formaldehyde as they break down, while the hollowed middle can quickly fill with water, attracting a massive breeding ground for mosquitoes. Australia's animals, like humans, should have a clean and safe home.
Australia does have some government-level anti-litter initiatives in place. According to the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, the Recycling Modernisation Fund will address gaps in the country's recycling efforts to better sort and process plastic, tires, cardboard, and paper. Unfortunately, according to Ridly, a rubbish removal company, litter in Australia is projected to increase by 20% by 2030.
Commenters expressed disdain for the image but seemed used to seeing similar scenes.
After the Redditor ended their post with "surely we can do better than this Melbourne!" one person replied: "Pretty sure we can't. People are just ***holes. … And a lot of this is done by like the internet hire-a-cowboy websites who promise to take everything to the dump for $50 and then just tip it in the nearest creek."
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