Excessive waste production, illegal landfills and waste in the wild have long been a global problem. Compared to 1950, there are 322 million tons more plastics produced. Ten percent of this amount ends up at sea as waste. However, the problem of plastic pollution is not just about the oceans and seas – waste can also be found to a large extent in European rivers.
Waste reduction in the southeast of Slovakia
According to some estimates, 80% of the waste comes from land-based operations.
Even if the waste is on the earth’s surface, floods, rivers and wind will move garbage into the sea.
As a response to the problem of waste in rivers, the project Tid(y)Up has been created. The main project activity will therefore be the cleaning of the Bodrog River and its surroundings, where several polluted sites can be found.
This environmental action will take place in early September on 06/09/2021 and will last until 08/09/2021. Waste will be cleaned near the border villages, such as: Zemplín, Ladmovce, Viničky, Borša and Streda nad Bodrogom. Hungarian volunteers will also take part in the event.
The three-day enviro-marathon of garbage collection will further proceed on the Hungarian side in the village of Felsőberecki (in Slovak language: Vyšné Berecky) and then towards Sárospatak. Following this event, a waste collection competition (PETKUPA) will take place in Hungary, which will start the next day on 09.09.2021 in Sárospatak.
Sorting of collected waste and kayaks cleaning
In addition to the fact that the cleaning will be cross-border, collected waste will be subsequently sorted by volunteers into glass and metals, PET bottles and municipal waste. The Austrian partners from the BOKU University comprehensively developed the so-called “Sorting protocol” according to which waste can be further categorized and analyzed.
This environmental event will also be special as the waste will be collected in two ways: from water and from land. One group of volunteers will collect waste from kayaks in places where other volunteers will no longer reach, while the other group will clean up nature near the river on foot.
We believe that the clean-up of the Bodrog River will lead to many other initiatives, especially at the local level.
The event will be organised by the updated restrictions for events and currently valid decrees of the Public Health Office of the Slovak Republic.
Foto: Peter Varga @Petkupa
Project Tid(y)Up is an international environmental project led by the main partner from Hungary, where in cooperation with other foreign partners we try to reduce water pollution and thus improve water quality in the Tisza River (Bodrog River is its tributary) and the lower Danube River.
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