Dear Sir,

Beautiful Bermuda? I’m not so sure.

I recently returned home to Bermuda from living overseas. Happy to be back, I immediately took a walk along the railway tracks. The longer I walked, the further I sank into a steadily deepening funk.

Why is there so much litter on this Island?

Considering we will be holding a world class event here, our Island is looking far from world class.

The railway tracks are an embarrassment. Beer bottles, plastic bottles, shopping bags, shopping carts, diapers — and my favourite, dog faeces in plastic bags — litter the trails. It never ceases to amaze me the dog owners who clean up after their dogs and then throw the faeces and plastic bag into the bushes. I would love to know the reasoning behind this.

Our roadsides are also looking horrible in areas.

What type of person throws their rubbish out of their car windows or from their bikes?

Research shows that people who litter have low self-esteem, low self-worth, and I would argue are lacking in any kind of intelligence whatsoever.

Research also shows that those of us who take pride in ourselves will also take pride in our neighbourhoods.

Litter is one of the first signs of social decay. If we don’t care about litter on our streets, in our parks, in our oceans and on our beaches, we are unlikely to care about other environmental issues that negatively impact on our lives, our communities and society. As far as tourism goes, there are far cleaner and more affordable islands to spend time on.

England is running a clean-up campaign called Love Where You Live. Isn’t that lovely?

If you loved where you lived, surely you wouldn’t trash your neighbourhood — right?

Respect for our planet begins with respect for ourselves and respect for our neighbourhoods.

On an Island this small I find it hard to determine where a neighbourhood begins and ends. We really should be thinking of our entire Island as our neighbourhood.

Thank you to KBB and all their amazing volunteers who put in massive efforts cleaning up our parks and beaches as well, but isn’t it a shame that these clean-up efforts need to exist in the first place?

If our Island was litter free, clean-up efforts could go towards other negative environmental impacts such as removing Indian laurel, Mexican pepper and other invasive plants.

Please don’t use plastic bags. Please be a leader and don’t drop litter.

Here we are in 2015, and we are still failing to live our lives in a way that reduces our environmental impact whilst improving the health and happiness of ourselves and each other.

Moving towards a healthier, stronger and cleaner Island culture begins with each one of us. Our beautiful Island is not nearly as clean and litter free as it should be.

Change is clearly necessary, and it can only happen when we work together.

CONCERNED

Southampton