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mw. A few days ago the bad news could be read and heard in all Swiss media: In the last six months six cows in Grenchen had bled to death due to internal injuries, because fragments of aluminum cans had got in their food. The cause for this needless death is beverage cans that people throw away wherever they are: on streets and squares, in other people’s gardens, on meadows and fields. Counter measures for the eradication of such anti-social behavior should be taken immediately.
“In the recent months farmer Schnyder has lost six cows – five of them pregnant. After the most recent case of death the cow was examined and the cause of death was found: small, razor-sharp pieces of aluminum in the food which injured the animal internally. The aluminum pieces had got in the food due to careless urbanites enjoying their energy drink, their beer and then just throwing away the can in the meadow.” (Source: DRS4 news on June 4, 2012, “Discarded aluminum cans – death sentence for the cows”).
Fines on throw-away offenders
Politics is requested by veterinarians to put a high deposit on aluminum cans, in order to provide a first remedy for the rampant disfigurement on the environment and the threat to the animals. However, they have not met a response yet: this could not be expected from young people with a tight budget, politicians said. Why not? The essence of a deposit is that the consumer gets his money back if he delivers the can to the right place, instead of “beautifying” the landscape with it. Can our young people not be expected to pack their cans and dispose them properly? Rubbish!
After all, firm measures against polluters have been introduced lately in various Swiss cities. Thus, whoever is caught red-handed by a police officer in Berne is fined with up to 300 francs, where at least five such on-the-spot fines have been imposed in 2011. The offender has to pay 40 francs just for throwing away a cigarette butt or a piece of gum (Source: sda of 09/05/2012). Since 2012, a new police regulation is in force in Zurich according to which littering or leaving waste will be fined with 80 or 120 francs. Operators of snack corners must take precautions to keep public properties clean. During the night, i.e. from 10 pm to 7 am (in the summer 11 pm to 7 am), each kind of disruptive behavior is prohibited (Source: sda of 11/24/2011). In the canton of Basel-City even a five-pillar approach was introduced, with the pillars cleaning, prevention, repression, clean events and industry. So far, Basel-City has spent 19 million francs per year for a clean city; with the new concept, the expenditure will be increased by a further 1.4 million – a fair sum from the taxpayers’ coffers. Among others, this money will be used to expand the “graffiti removal force” which is to remove graffiti as quickly as possible (Source: sda of 08/09/2011).
A challenge for parents and schools
It is to be hoped that many “waste disposers” are being caught by the police and awarded a stiff penalty. As long as parents and teachers – just for fear of being “authoritarian” – do not call their children and young people to order if they throw away their garbage or set off with spray cans in their free time, there will basically only little change. It begins with some mothers tacitly collecting dirty clothes that their children carelessly drop on the floor. In the schools the caretakers wipe away heaps of waste in the schoolyard after each break; at the entrances of vocational schools cigarette butts are on the ground, although there are large ashtrays.
Here we are challenged as educators: Some of the basics of developing into a socially competent person are – beside the consideration for the fellow human beings – a caring attitude towards animals, a sparing use of food and other resources and the protection of the environment. Those who do not understand will either have to clean the schoolyard or pay a stiff fine. This will probably teach them that tax money is not paid to finance their bad behavior. Teachers can take their classes on a free afternoon (not instead of teaching!) and clean a forest or a rest stop together – which will have more impact than any expensive poster campaign. At home, children can learn from their mothers how to operate the washing machine and hang up the laundry – which should also be part of education.•
A Suggestion by Veterinarians
ab. Recently, our vet let us know that he has written a letter to the Committee for the Environment, Spatial Planning and Energy (CESPE) concerning their decision on the waste problem two weeks ago. He did so on his own and on behalf of many of his colleagues – district veterinarians, mature personalities with a lot of experience in life, politics and in their profession.
Their suggestions includes:
1. Charge a painful deposit on all returnable aluminum beverage cans to be returned at a distribution machine. This might motivate people to collect littered cans from the roadside for earning more pocket-money (esp. youngsters and grown-up 68ers).
2. Large cities and towns should start to restrict the excessive “Party Culture”. Responsible organization committees for
“Saturday night festivals” should receive strict requirements including:
a) accurately allocated limited areas, to avoid interference with the residential areas
b) sanitary facilities required
c) no fights/violence
d) deposit on cans
e) committees must clean up themselves, without delegating.
3. Improve environment education in schools and educate the next generation to take more care, and to develop a sense of responsibility for general welfare.
Veterinarians are a relevant main-stay professional group in Switzerland with high responsibility. They have not received an answer to their letter from the CESPE committee members, let alone an acknowledgement of receipt.
The stupid decision of the Committee: Refusal to establish a deposit on disposable beverage cans!
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