It’s hard to write this post without expressing my emotions which are mostly composed of anger and lot of frustration, but I’ll try my best to be as neutral and professional as possible. Yesterday when I went to take photos of the bike sharing station near Marina Waves, I was caught off guard by what has to be the dumbest fucking decision ever an idea with good intentions, but poor execution.
Who thought it would be a great fucking idea to plaster bright orange garbage bins at eye level every 10 fucking meters on the side facing the sea???!. Now I am aware of the garbage situation in Kuwait and specifically Salmiya, I’ve written about it a number of times on the blog before, but I do believe this idea could have been executed better. I guess people have been throwing garbage on the floor so someone (I’m assuming at the municipality) decided to add more garbage bins all across the beautiful scenic path near Marina Waves. The issue is, the garbage bins are bright fucking orange, raised up to eye level, and most importantly, they’re placed every 10 meters on the side of the path that is closest to the sea.
The pathway is popular because the view there is spectacular. It’s a popular location for photos and its one of the most beautiful aspects of Kuwait along with the whole Gulf Road. So why ruin this amazing view by sticking bright fucking orange bins so high up on ugly poles? Why couldn’t they add more bins, but ones that blended in with the environment better instead of sticking out like a sore thumb? For the benefit of the doubt, lets assume they had a very limited budget to work with, and these cheap plastic bins were the only ones that fit into their budget. Why couldn’t they place them on the other side of the path so that the sea view isn’t blocked by hundreds of these floating orange bins? Whoever is behind this I am guessing was behind a similar stupid idea in Salmiya a few years ago where they plastered yellow bins every 10 meters on the side of Salem Mubarek Street. That idea failed because it was fucking stupid not well thought out, and these orange ideas aren’t a good solution either.
Also, do people who litter do so because the garbage bin is to far, or do they litter because they don’t know any better and just don’t care? My guess is the later, the below is taken from the City of Chicago website:
Why Do People Litter?
People litter because they do not feel responsible for public areas like streets and parks. The more they litter, the more it becomes a habit, and the worse the community looks. People usually litter outside their own neighborhood where their trash becomes someone else’s problem.
I highly doubt these garbage bins are going to stop people from littering, what we need is probably an awareness campaign that educates the public on why they shouldn’t litter, followed by strict enforcement of the littering law (which I believe we have).
21 replies on “The Garbage Walk”
There is a littering problem, but there is no litter problem. That’s because there is always someone walking along brooming it all up. So why in the world did they do this?
Ummm maybe it’s because they want people to throw away their garbage
i feel many people do litter because the garbage bin is too far or not insight specially those sitting on those rocks along the beach.
Some one needs to call Captain planet.
the garbage bins will ALWAYS be too far for those people
yup
No one should ever litter no matter how far the bin was. I think the reason they did this was out of frustration. They just wanted to add something that would scream loud “DO NOT LITTER. I AM HERE. PLEASE USE ME INSTEAD” hence the bright orange color.
Those metal rods are new and already rusty… isn’t that bad for aquatic life?
It’s not in the sea so I wouldn’t worry too much about…
What harms the marine environment the most is littering on the beach. As someone who deeply cares about protecting our marine ecosystem that makes my blood boil
Dear 248am,
I think the municipality removed the old grey garbages that were in between the concrete benches to stop cats from eating from it.
That being said, they could have put them on the other side of the walk and choose a much better pantone.
Lots of censoring huh…
Haha yeah just fucking around
That aside, think of the smells and flies buzzing around and ants taking over those bins particularly during the beautiful summer months and amazing temperatures.
Having them so close to each other along this popular path for exercise and simply sitting down and enjoying the sound of the ocean at night or the view of the city will definitely not be as pleasant!
I actually had people including the street cleaners approach me when I was picking up litter and god damn fishing hooks and tell me to just throw them to the rocks!! Even the street cleaners brush the litter through the gaps in to the rocks. It is disgusting, even more so after National Day and Liberation Day! People who spend the weekend celebrating how much they live their country by totally trashing it!
In the last couple of years, I have seen a drastic degradation of this stretch due to – 1. these eyesore dustbins perched awkwardly on the out sized poles (they could have fixed them at ground level)
2. Dog pee (fresh and dried patches) on the benches and concrete blocks, that you can’t sit on now.
No! I wanted to do scopes from there to show the better side of Kuwait and now it will just look plain ridiculous 🙁
Couldn’t even read the whole thing as I feel your frustration there with this mishap—YIKES!
Not to mention it’s unhygienic as well as the germs from the litter (depending on it’s contents might radiate esp wet trash). Also these type of trashes need to have a absorber built-in inorder to absorb any unpleasant odor.
Coincidentally I met them in Zurich last week and it’s an innovative system: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlQepFhRV8w
*hint *hint @Architects @Consultants @Contractors
I feel u, they aren’t that nice aesthetically
I was going to say that maybe they are located (and painted like that) so that people can actually see how close they are and not make that garbage is too far away excuse. However, ur quote from the Chicago site got me thinking.
I just hope people will actually use them, that will more than make up for the fuglyness to me
The situation is more worse there.. i went there this weekened and my daughter wanted to use the toilet.. as i went near the ladies side i found it locked to my horror i missee myself being stepped into pooop!!!!literally huge amount of poop jus outside the door…with fliess infesting on it
Horrified n disgusted will never ever even walk on marina waves again
Littering is not just a Kuwaiti problem. I saw a guy in the UK parked in Macdonald’s car park just 2 metres from a bin but rather than get out of his car he just dumped his rubbish out of his car window and drove off. 2 metres! It’s because people don’t believe it’s their responsibility and just aren’t brought up to care or have ownership of their area or country. It’s a terrible problem in England.
On the other hand, when I lived in Japan you would hardly see any litter anywhere and if you did see some, someone would take responsibility for it and pick it up even if it wasn’t theirs. They are taught from an early age to clean up after themselves. School children have to clean their own classrooms. This behaviour continues into their adult lives. It’s one of the many things I love about Japan and I wish people in the UK (and Kuwait) could be more like that, but how can you change a mentality that has to come from their parents and they will pass on to their children?
+1
Littering, regardless where it happens, it`s just a matter of education, respect for environment and other human beings, and here I`m pointing to that education that children should receive at home from their parents, not at school. In Kuwait is quite understandable why people are littering, being brought up by maids, having cleaners roaming the streets etc.
The system can only educate people thru harsh fines.
We need to reinstate and widen the use of the 1000 KD fine.