Flying trash: Everything out the window
Ace Emerson, The Ant Daily
You’re driving along the highway when, all of a sudden, a pile of trash from the car in front of you comes flying out of a window.
It could be the driver of the car, balling up fast-food wrappers and other garbage and tossing them high into the air as his/her car speeds merrily along.
Or perhaps it’s someone on the passenger side, winding down the window and lofting a soft-drink can along with the skin of some rambutans and langsat, littering the highway, scarely missing your vehicle.
It’s like an aerial barrage – trash is thrown from cars onto the roadways or it can come dropping out of apartments at the most unexpected places.
Welcome to Malaysia. Despite the fact that Malaysia prides itself as an educated and civilised nation, many people are still devoid of civic and common sense.
Such uncivilised actions, such as using highways and local roads as garbage dumps (some even tossed durian skins onto the road), are unfortunately and embarrassingly rather common.
Cleanliness issues aside, flinging junk from car windows can easily contribute to serious traffic accidents.
So why do people do it? Simply put – because everybody else is doing it.
“Not only does it look bad, but it can also be harmful to people and animals,” said one motorist, Jeffrey Low, whose windshield got in the way of a flying trash bag from the passenger side of the car in front of him.
It caused him to momentarily lose control of his car and almost hit a neighbourhood dog which was trying to do its business by the side of the road.
“It was a bag full of old batteries, drink cans, and some rotten mangoes,” he recalled.
Soaring and plummeting objects are growing to be a serious problem. Trash thoughtlessly chucked out of windows is not just confined to moving vehicles but also apartment buildings and other high-rises.
“A hefty three-seater couch almost struck a woman walking below carrying her three-month-old baby at Pantai Hillpark Condominium, where one of our friends lives,” an international school teacher Freda Soon told theantdaily.
Soon, who has lived in her apartment in Mont Kiara for over a decade, added: “It is disgracefully infuriating. I have gathered all kinds of revolting items from my laundry and balcony area. I thought we were living in a civil community? Evidently not.”
“The apartment we invested in Desa ParkCity used to be set in delightful surroundings. But if you look carefully around, you still see people flinging their trash out the windows. Someone from this building got hit in the face from above with a bag of rotten meat,” said Rita Wong.
“We fork out a service charge to the management monthly which covers the clean-up expenses for the building and encompassing area, but yet this will not help if people continue to dump their crap out their windows,” she added.
“When we talk to the management, they inform us that they can’t do much. The police, they can’t do much either. Even if you have documented evidence, nothing can be done mainly because the laws on littering are hardly ever truly enforced here,” Soon lamented.
