Web-Resol Tudo sobre Limpeza Urbana e Resíduos Sólidos!
Litter is any product or material that is lying around on our highways, parks, beaches or streets that doesn‘‘t belong there.
A recent litter audit from a large, Canadian city found that litter can be any of a wide range of items, such as:
Miscellaneous paper or cardboard;
Printed paper material (like newspapers, flyers, bus transfers, etc.);
Towels/napkins/serviettes;
Pieces of plastic packaging;
Foil materials;
Candy bar wrappers;
Cups, lids, pieces of both;
Tobacco/cigarette butts;
Soft drink containers;
Gum wrappers;
Stationary;
Bottle caps;
Straws;
And many, many more other kinds of items.
Litter is not limited to any one material or item, as the above list demonstrates. It might have:
Fallen off of a truck;
Been blown there by the wind; and
Been tossed there carelessly by us.
The type of litter tends to vary, depending on where you are. For example, litter found on beaches comes from a number of sources.
Holiday-makers or picnicking people on the beach bring a large amount of disposable items like newspapers, cigarettes, and packaging for food and drinks. When these items are taken home after use or put in a bin, no litter is created but if they are not disposed of responsibly – maybe because the wind caught it when the waste bin was already full or someone carelessly tossed it aside – waste becomes litter.
Some coastal litter can come from other places. For example, the litter that has been washed ashore by ocean currents could come from other beaches or from illegal dumping on the water. While some litter will rot over time, much of it remains unless it is collected and removed.
In addition to being unsightly and unpleasant to look at, litter can also damage our environment. It is unsanitary and dangerous. It can be a carrier of disease and cause injury to people who don‘‘t see it
Artigos Relacionados
Check Also
Waste management poses challenges, but could unlock major environmental and economic gains
Every day, the city of Rio de Janeiro, one of the largest metropolises in the Southern Hemisphere, generates 17,000 tonnes of waste, ranging from large industrial debris to candy wrappers bought innocently at newspaper stands. While this waste presents a serious and urgent environmental challenge, it also fuels an increasingly significant portion of the economy, with benefits extending beyond financial gains. - When we look at developed European countries, many are already recycling between 40% and 50%, with some reaching 60%. From an economic standpoint, both recyclable materials and organic waste hold tremendous value - stated Adalberto Maluf, National Secretary for Environment and Environmental Quality at the Ministry of the Environment (MMA), during the Methane Forum: Climate Emergency Brake, at the Rio Nature and Climate Week. Citing a 2025 report, Maluf mentioned that Brazil literally throws away R$27 billion annually, while municipalities spend significantly more - R$45 billion - managing all this waste, often overlooking the environmental impact or economic potential buried in landfills and dumps. - We spend R$45 billion to collect and dispose of waste in landfills, yet we manage to recycle less than a third of the potential. I believe it will be necessary to review contracts, create performance-based remuneration mechanisms, and pay for both effectively sorted materials and those diverted from landfills - he added. According to the IBGE, 60.5% of Brazilian municipalities adopt some form of selective waste collection, and several initiatives serve as examples of how to manage city waste. In his panel presentation, Bernardo Ornelas, Project Coordinator at the Rio de Janeiro Municipal Urban Cleaning Company (Comlurb), highlighted Ecoparque do Caju, a national benchmark in waste management and recycling. There, received materials are sorted and can be used for biogas production, organic compounds for urban gardens, or human consumption, in the case of still...