“Poverty still proves to be the overwhelming issue and impacts how people treat their environment . . . Governments have looked at providing . . . resources to the communities at the cheapest possible rate and these measures do not always take the environment into account”
A direct quote from Wendy Da Cruz, a consulting agent and a EUREM trainer, shows that the government tends to try to find the cheapest resources, which are often not good for the environment. Another current problem is that more energy is consumed than is available, so more coal-fed power stations are being opened and certain “blackouts” are planned to stop the consumption of energy. Coal is the main energy source and although some are using solar/wind/ hydropower, it is not used by the government.
There are laws in place to monitor levels of CFCs and exhaust gases from vehicles; the higher level of gasses produced, the heavier the tax. Other than that, the laws only target companies, not individuals.
There are no big programs for recycling ran by the government, but there are some local, private recycling programs. Because families are not paid to recycle, only some do it out of voluntary social responsibility. For those who do recycling, there are paper, plastic, glass, metal and the recycled materials are used to recreated products. Green products and solar panels are used but electric cars are too expensive for the public. Plastic bags are still used but shoppers have to pay to use them. Lastly, there are buses and trains, but the cars and taxis are used more commonly than public transportation.