Externality

Definition of Externality

An externality is present when the activity of one entity (person or firm) directly affects the welfare of another entity in a way that is outside the market mechanism.

Externality can be categorized as two type:

Positive Externality
Negative Externality

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This is a sneek peak of our project engagement where it shows the villagers and the students are collecting the garbages together around Kampung Perlis.

Positive Externalities

Externalities can be positive. Positive externalities is a benefit received by a third party as a result of an economic transaction is known as a positive externality. Individuals who gain from positive externalities without paying for them are known as free-riders; nonetheless, it may be in society's best interests to encourage free-riders to consume commodities that create significant external benefits. Most merit products, as can be observed, create positive externalities that recipients do not pay for. In the case of healthcare, for example, private treatment for communicable diseases gives a significant benefit to others for which they are not charged. In short, positive externality can be defined as activities that benefits on others. The examples of positive externalities are such as :

• Research & development

• Vaccinations

• A neighbor's nice landscape

• Students asking good questions in class

In our project engagement with the villagers, we started our main activity by collecting garbages around the neighborhood of Kampung Perlis. The villagers were provided with trash pick up tools, gloves and orange plastic bags in order to smoothing the activity to be done. This can be an example of positive externalities because by collecting the garbages, the neighborhood of Kampung Perlis will be much cleaner than before. This will also benefited other villagers who did not participated in our project engagement because they will also enjoy a cleaner Kampung Perlis.

Negative Externalities

Negative externalities occur when a good or service's product and/or consumption has a negative impact on a third party who is not involved in the transaction. A typical transaction contains two parties, the first and second parties in the transaction, which are referred to as the first and second parties in the transaction, respectively. A third party is someone who isn't involved in the transaction but is interested in it. In short, negative externality is the activities that impose damages on others.

The examples of negative externalities are such as :

• Pollution

• Cell phones in a movie theater

• Congestion on the internet

• Drinking and driving

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Footages of pollution around Kampung Perlis

In our project engagement with the villagers, we found that the neighborhood of Kampung Perlis is not clean completely. Although the neighborhood was provided with the regular garbage bin, it was found that there were still garbages being thrown everywhere around the compound of the houses.

Garbages are everywhere in Kampung Perlis

This is supposed to be a pot to plant tree in order to beautify the surrounding scenery of Kampung Perlis. The location of this pot is literally besides of our project site. However, it is sad that this had become a garbage dump due to irresponsible hands that keep polluting the surrounding.

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The student is counting the face masks that have been found during collecting the garbages around Kampung Perlis.

The most common garbage

The most shocking part is we managed to found almost 39 pieces of face masks in just only 30 minutes of collecting the garbages around the neighborhood of Kampung Perlis. As face masks is compulsory to wear in Malaysia, the amount of face masks being thrown everywhere is very shocking. This is because face masks is very unhygienic things with the spreaded of Covid-19. Therefore, we have to sanitize ourselves carefully while taking care of the garbages to be properly thrown using the right method. This is also one of the negative externality to the community.

Penang has already ban the usage of polystyrene but we still found that waste around the neighborhood of Kampung Perlis. We assumed that this waste was from Electric and Electronic (E&E) products. Polystyrene is a non-biodegradable pollutant. The reason of banning of the usage of polystyrene is because of the time taken of polystyrene to decompose. Experts says that polystyrene takes around 500 years to decompose itself. Therefore, this type of waste should not be underestimated. This is one of the negative externality to the community.

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