Sunday, May 3, 2009
LITTERING
What are externalities? An externality occurs in economics when a decision (for example, to pollute the environment) causes costs or benefits to individuals or groups other than the person making the decision. There are different externalities that occur in Singapore, be it positive or negative.
One of the negative externalities in Singapore will be littering. Many people in Singapore tend to litter as they are very lazy to walk to the nearest dustbin to throw their litter. This serves as a negative externality as when more and more people are doing this, the government has to employ more cleaners to clean up the area. Let’s just say throwing litter in the school, who will be affected in a negative way? Firstly, it will be the school. The school will have to employ more janitors to pick up trash and to clean up the school. Secondly, due to this, the citizens have to pay taxes to support the operation of the school.
Next, imagine the people who litter in the park, this would ruin the enjoyment of others who are strolling or running in the park. Not only that, this would also incur a cost in the landlords or the property owners as this would adversely affect the nearby property prices. Trash that isn’t taken out promptly will also smell and attract pests. This in turn will have an adverse effect on the citizens. They will have to incur health costs too as they will be affected due to the poor hygiene around the area.
Thus, the government has implemented fines on littering.
However, I am not only going to talk about the common littering that you see while walking along the streets or roads. What I am going to say now will be the littering of chewing gums. Often, many people tend to throw away the wrapper after unwrapping the chewing gum. Due to this, they will just spit out after eating it. Not only that, some may just stick the chewing gum on bus seats, key holes or even underneath the tables. This has caused serious maintenance problem in HDBs, with vandals disposing of gums in mailboxes, inside keyholes, and even on elevator buttons. Chewing gums left on floors, stairways and pavements in public areas increased the cost of cleaning and damaged cleaning equipment. Mr. S Dhanabalan, chairman of Temasek Holdings, has mentioned that the HDB spent $75,000 a year to remove the chewing gums from walls and floors in housing estates. This has indeed caused a headache in the government.
Thus, chewing gum was being banned in Singapore in 1992. On 2004, the law was being revised and Singapore government has allowed sales of chewing gums in pharmacies. However, Singaporeans have to sign their name on a piece of paper before buying them. Although Singapore has taken precautions against the littering of chewing gums and also by importing only a small batch of certain chewing gums, we are still not sure if this negative externality will occur again.
weiling T02
Labels: externality
We Loved10:55 PM
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