Initially when I was asked to write something for the Dirties blog I wanted it to be happy and cheerful, as the day of the project is a date associated with a couple of celebrations! It was both the national day of Wales (Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Sant!) and in Bulgaria (my home country) it is the day in which people celebrate the beginning of the spring with the traditional ‘Martenitsi’. I’d like to write something cheerful, so you’ll know about the wonderful sunny day we had in the morning and for most of lunch…maybe I’d share with you tales about the magical beauty of the Inzievar woods and the lucky fact that some people from the team even saw deer on the way back! I’m sure you’d delight at the knowledge that Ellie made delicious Welsh cakes and to learn that one of the reasons why I love the Dirty Weekenders is the lunches we share together because it’s a thing I really miss from home…
It’s is in this paragraph where I would endeavour to tell these happy tales. Alas, had it not been for a young man in the courtyard of my accommodation. The young man in question keeps rolling a glass bottle over and over, and over again, reminding me of the rubbish we gathered from Inzievar. For a short time we collected dozens of fully recyclable aluminium cans, many glass bottles (again recyclable), some plastic bags, a fuel container and even a traffic cone! And as I wonder what is the logic behind the action of littering I remember the numerous reports of streams left uninhabitable due to pollution with poisonous compounds (or maybe not even poisonous, the non-degradable synthetic soaps are sufficient to block gas exchange and leave stream waters saturated with CO2), cigarette butts discovered in the stomachs of young birds, or wild animals stuck in man-made objects which do not belong to forests.
I see that Dirties’ projects really make a positive difference in the environment – for instance we uncovered, beneath the chopped rhododendrons, a young fir trees which will grow and provide shelter to birds. We also removed all of the potentially dangerous visible pollutants we could see – these actions will make a positive difference.
However, it would be even nicer if more people, especially students, know that their actions do make a difference and there is no better place for a used glass bottle than the recycling bin.
So hey you, man outside! Recycle that bottle straight away!
Emiliya