“The waste and by-products of new materials manufactured from the 20th century onward generate novel forms of environmental toxicity, with unintended, often unpredictable, and sometimes very long-lasting effects on other living beings and ecologies.” (feralatlas.supdigital.org, n.d.)
Garbage is one of the kinds that Feral feild mentioned dumping, especially plastic waste. “Plastics are a key culprit. Unlike organic matter, which nourishes and builds the lives of other organisms as it breaks down over time, plastics resist biodegradation. Instead, they float around the environments where they have been discarded, leaching some toxins and absorbing others.” (feralatlas.supdigital.org, n.d.) When birds are hunting, they will inadvertently ingest some of the fine garbage, which in some extent contains toxic sediment, which directly affects the health of birds. The large amount of garbage floating in the ocean can also lead to Marine life, such as turtles, eating the garbage.
What about the effect of litter on lawns? Apparently, human waste is having an effect on lawns. Grassland ecosystem is one of the most affected terrestrial ecosystems by human activities. When waste such as plastic is thrown into the lawn, the soil can’t break down the waste in time, and the lawn is affected by the waste.
In my observation, Edinburgh has a lot of lawns. However, these lawns are more or less littered with rubbish, such as plastic water bottles and discarded paper. Calton Hill, for example, is one of Edinburgh’s most famous Spaces and buildings, and Calton Hill has lots of lawns. But on one of my visits to Calton Hill, I found that the lawn of Calton Hill had been left with some rubbish. （figure 1）
Figure 1 The photo was taken at Calton Hill
In addition, some household items are also discarded on the lawn, such as the glasses in picture 2.
figure 2 The glasses were discarded on the lawn
Therefore, for this feral field, I choose lawn, because lawn can be seen everywhere in Edinburgh, and lawn and garbage often appear in the same picture. In my opinion, people should pay attention to the protection of lawns, lawns can absorb carbon dioxide in the air, play the role of purifying the air, and absorb dust in the air and so on. Therefore, we should protect lawns instead of using them as trash cans everywhere. After all, there are bins in many corners of Edinburgh.
Reference list
feralatlas.supdigital.org. (n.d.). Feral Atlas. [online] Available at: https://feralatlas.supdigital.org/?cd=true&bdtext=feral-atlas-and-the-more-than-human-anthropocene&text=isc-dump&ttype=essay [Accessed 17 Mar. 2023].
