Why our public parks are so polluted?

 

Piccadilly gardens is so undermaintained

Have you ever been to a public park such as Piccadilly Gardens, only to be unpleasantly surprised by the smell of weed or vapes? Or feel disgusted by how much rubbish is littered in the park? Well, this brings in the problem of externalities and the free rider problem. These phenomena often operate invisibly, yet the consequences are felt in each nook of our economic landscape. They shape the pleasantness of our lives and the efficiency of our markets.

The invisible hand principle, proposed by the famous economist Adam Smith, has an implicit assumption: the economic behavior of a single consumer or producer has no impact on the welfare of others in society, that is, there is no externality. In real life, this implicit assumption often fails to hold true. An externality, whether it being positive or negative, occurs whilst the production or consumption of a services or products has an influence on a third party who is not immediately involved inside the transaction and does not compensate or get money for it. (Dahlman 1979).

Indeed, why we experience such unpleasant experiences in public parks are down to the problem of negative externalities. When a person smokes, or he vapes, this creates a cost to himself due to the negative effects of smoking e.g. lung cancer. That is fine. Most people do not care about their well-being. However, when they smoke, this creates an external cost (secondhand smoking) that non-smokers like us have to bear. (NIH, 2006). The external cost may be even greater than the private cost of smoking, as studies have shown that the harmful effects of secondhand smoking is even greater than smoking itself. Even if you are not harmed by secondhand smoking, it may still be an unpleasant experience to bear the smell of weeds or cigarettes.

Not only does smoking causes harm to the general public, it could also harm the nearby businesses and the economy as well. Imagine you know Piccadilly Gardens is full of smokers. Then you as a nonsmoker may avoid going to there.  However, this will adversely affect the nearby businesses e.g. Zizzi, Bunsek as they will lose potential customers. They will have fewer sales, and the result may be them facing closure which could lead to job losses. Thus, it is not good for the economy as it reduces economic growth. Moreover, if many people smoke, or even drug deal (BBC news, 2024) in public parks, this will damage the reputation of the park, leading to less visitors and adversely affecting nearby businesses. As such, the negative externalities generated by smoking could be potentially huge.

So why does this happen? This could be boiled down to the problem of free riding. Public parks are considered as public goods. This means that nobody could prevent other people from enjoying in public parks, and everyone parks well because he has the property right of the park, and he could profit from consuming the entire amount of public parks. Due to this the free rider problem arises. Since nobody owns the park, everyone can enjoy it regardless of their contribution, that means nobody would have an incentive to take care of the park. Some people vape, or litter in the park because they think it is fine to do so, there are not any costs associated with them aside from the private costs of smoking and littering (got caught). Thus no one has an incentive to maintain the beauty and cleanliness of public parks. That is why public parks are usually less clean and less maintained than privately owned parks. In contrast, private parks are not public goods (Owner could demand an entrance fee). As a result, the owner has an incentive to better maintain the park to attract more visitors so they can profit more.

So how could the government tackle this free rider problem? The answer lies on how to eliminate the negative externality. To eliminate the external cost of smoking and vaping, the government could set a higher tax or fines on smoking in public parks, that could discourage smokers from smoking in the park. By doing so this increases the private costs of smoking (because smokers could be fined more) which helps reduce the number of smokers.

Alternatively, the government could educate the public about the dangers of smoking and the need to maintain clean and unpolluted public parks. Since public parks are what we treasure, we should be respectful of the surroundings nearby and not to pollute them (e.g. littering) even if no one owns them. Otherwise, we will have lost these valuable places for us to have leisure and play, which eventually only damages our wellbeing and adversely affect the nearby shops and businesses.

So are externalities only bad? Not really. The government could introduce positive externalities that could benefit the public and the businesses nearby. For example, the government could incentivize firms e.g. the Factory International to hold art exhibitions in Piccadilly Gardens. This not only benefits the firms themselves, whose art exhibitions could gain more recognition through displaying in a hustle area. It also increases the reputation of the park which attracts more visitors. Eventually, this creates more demand for the shops as the people who have watched the exhibition may want to shop and eat nearby. This would have led to positive effects including increased job security and higher economic growth.

 

 

As such, what should we do to protect our public parks and secure a better future for our future generations by ensuring they have access to high quality leisure facilities? The answer is simple. We must act now and face the problem of free riding. If everyone can do more, for example, be more considerate through not littering or stop smoking, then altogether this would have created a much more desirable and a more pleasant experience when visiting our public parks.

Reference lists

Dahlman, C. J. (1979). The problem of externality. The journal of law and economics, 22(1), 141-162. Available at: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/466936

BBC news (16 May 2024). Nineteen charged in undercover drugs investigation

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp4g4eplnnlo

 NIH (2006) The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke: A Report of the Surgeon General. Cancer Among Adults from Exposure to Secondhand Smoke.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK44330/