Keeping Your Playground and Park Clean
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Author: Austin Stanfel
Do you enjoy taking a walk outside at your local playground? Indeed, almost everyone likes to spend time in a community park during free hours. In fact, in many communities, parks are a social hub where people of all ages meet and communicate together.
However, have you ever wondered how difficult it is to keep playgrounds and parks clean? For administrators at a playground, management of hazard and litter is like a full-time job. At the same time, private organizations routinely volunteer to clean the local parks so that people like you and me can have a safe space for our entertainment.
A space that is filled with litter is not just very unattractive, but it is also a significant liability and a health hazard. When outdoor space is being planned, authorities usually allocate some part of the total budget to waste management.
While human waste is easy to manage, pet waste management is one of the biggest problems that parks and other urban areas face. This is because pet waste does not only make the environment unbearable, but it also poses threats to water quality. Hence, it is essential to dispose of it properly.
One thing that pet owners should realize is that pet waste is quite harmful to public parks. In case they do not pick up the trash from their pets, the local lakes will get affected. As a result of this, the water table from which drinking water is extracted will also suffer.
Therefore, responsible disposal of pet waste should be taken up as a responsibility by everyone. This will ensure that everyone can continue to enjoy the local parks. At the same time, the owners of local parks should also put up signages that remind pet owners about the ordinances and bylaws. They should also provide an ample amount of disposal units and waste bags so that pet owners can dispose of pet waste properly.
Another big waste problem at local parks is that of plastic litter. Do you know that it takes around 500 years for plastic water to break down fully? Some other plastics take more than a thousand years to biodegrade. Even after they are fully broken down, a chemical is known as PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate) remains in the soil. It is a very toxic and harmful chemical that does not leave our environment.
An average person can, at most, do two things in this regard. Firstly, he/she can reduce the usage of plastic bags and plastic bottles. Instead, they can adopt reusable water bottles. Secondly, they should also ensure that all used plastic is recycled so that the local landscapes do not get littered.
In this park, owners can put several recycling bins in areas where there is a high amount of traffic. By designing a recycle friendly park like this, park owners will be able to reduce the amount of plastic waste on the site. Such receptacles can be placed beside the eating areas outdoors and playgrounds.