It it saddening how many Singaporeans are insensitive and
inconsiderate, even if they do not deliberately mean harm, but lack
of concern and caring can also cause unnecessary difficulty to
others.
Throwing half-finished drinks, liquids or ice into dustbins, is an
inconsiderate act because the water makes a horrid mess of the
rubbish. Decomposers (ie. bacteria and fungi) reply on enzymes to
carry out their decomposition work, which in turn needs water to
work. (This is why drying food can preserve it).
When pple throw drinks, liquids, ice, or even wet stuff that is not
properly tied up in plastic bags, they are causing a lot of
unnecessary unpleasantness to the rubbish cleaners (who are already
doing Singaporeans a very huge service performing cleaning tasks
that most pple won't be willing to do, without getting any thanks
or appreciation, or even a decent pay for their service), as well
as those poor elderly auntie/uncle who rumage through rubbish bins
every day to find some tin cans to sell to buy their next
meal.
If you have thrown drinks into rubbish bins in the past, it's ok if
you didn't realize that it causes others this problem. But please,
remember not to do it again. And just as importantly, please tell
your friends, classmates and others around you (spread the message
whenever you see someone about to throw a drink or ice into a bin),
let them understand the consequences of such an inconsiderate act.
I'm sure once they realize, they also wouldn't want to cause
suffering to others deliberately.
Then where to throw the drink, liquid or ice? If outside, pour it
down a drain, or even on the nearby grass patch. For ice cubes, you
can even throw in on the road (it'll dissolve and evaporate rapidly
under singapore heat). None of this is littering, because as long
as you do in intelligently (eg. unfinished sweet drinks don't pour
it on concrete floors, or inconvenience others in any way), you're
helping to water the plants and cool the environment. And doing
your bit to make the already unpleasant and thankless tasks of the
rubbish cleaners, at least a little less unpleasant or
painful.
Same for toilets and hawker centres. Pls be considerate for the
toilet cleaners and hawker cleaners. Don't make a mess of the
urinals, cubicles and basins. (I even remember seeing shit on a
man's urinal before!). For hawker centres, pls don't spit, spill or
dump food material onto the table, and if you're using tissue paper
and your food is soup based, pls do NOT throw ur tissue paper into
ur unfinished soup.
As long as you care, common sense is enough to advise you what is
considerate behaviour and what is not. Please remember to let
others know about this. Again, I believe it's not that Singaporeans
are really evil, it's just ignorance. So this is where you can help
them, let them know, help them to understand.
Thank you for being a nice person, wishing you a nice day.
Bedok Ah Beng
