The painful images below show a very disturbing part that also endangers our well-being and health as humans. What can be seen is an extremely harmful consequence of environmental degradation through the illegal dumping of waste.
As can be seen in the photos, waste thrown in nature has physical and toxicological implications in the lives of animals, people and the entire ecosystem. Plastics present in litter are ingested by wildlife, leading to fatal injuries and damage to the digestive tract, resulting in many health problems and even premature death for animals.
Plastic takes hundreds of years to fully degrade – meaning every piece of plastic ever produced is still out there, in some landfill or floating in rivers like this one, waiting to be mistaken for a deadly piece of food by a bird, turtle or other animal.
Numerous studies have shown that littering is often an individual and intentional act. In Kosovo, there is a huge number of illegal waste dumps (along with legal and terrible ones) and ordinary people often choose to throw litter in nature, due to the lack of a proper state system of waste collection and processing, due to of the lack of garbage bins throughout Kosovo and the lack of awareness campaigns.
Not only animals are endangered by garbage, but also human food. The presence of litter on the ground directly contributes to soil pollution. As a waste product decays, it infects the surrounding soil with hazardous chemicals. These pollutants can reduce the presence of microorganisms in the soil and inhibit or alter plant growth over generations.
Unfortunately, in Kosovo, very little has been done to raise citizens’ awareness of the importance of environmental protection, and the law against littering has never been implemented. The Government of Kosovo has almost never undertaken anything substantial and still does not undertake anything in relation to the awareness of citizens about the uncontrolled dumping of waste and the negative impact of this phenomenon on the health of animals and people. Moreover, Kosovo does not have any well-thought-out waste management and processing plan (recycling or reuse), so that the waste of all Kosovo does not remain scattered in large (supposedly legal) landfills in the middle of natural environments/landscapes.
In addition to endangering public health, the lack of proper waste management has deadly implications for the flora and fauna in Kosovo.
However, each of us can contribute to reduce the amount of waste in nature. Below you can find some tips on how to help:
– Put your garbage in the bin – in nature, avoid throwing garbage where birds or wild animals can feed. Even if there are garbage bins, put the garbage in the bag as far from nature and wildlife as possible
– Always take the garbage with you if there is no garbage bin available
– Keep a bag in your car to collect garbage
– Buy less packaged products and more local vegetables and fruit
– Use fabric/textile bags instead of plastic bags;
– Participate in cleaning the community where you liv
– Demand accountability from the responsible institutions;
– Educate and criticize others who continuously pollute the environment
📸 Photos by Arian Mavriqi