Wild garbage dump
In normal usage, the local pollution of natural areas and communities through illegal waste disposal is referred to as wild rubbish dump or wild landfill .
Origin, components
Wild rubbish dumps mostly come from private households. They occur particularly frequently in parking lots that are difficult to see, on motorways and country roads. In the communities, wild rubbish dumps arise on the roadsides , in backyards or in abandoned industrial areas - all in all, in remote and poorly monitored places that are accessible by vehicles. Since bulky waste is not disposed of for free in some communities , some citizens are trying to save on disposal fees by simply putting their garbage on the street. Too long a deadline for collection can also result in bulky waste being put on the street days or even weeks before the collection date. In many cities it has also become common practice that items that are no longer required are placed on the street with a note "To be given away" and are offered to passers-by free of charge. Although this in itself is to be welcomed as it reduces the amount of garbage, objects that are left behind are often not removed or things that are unusable are identified from the outset.
If the garbage that has accumulated in this way remains standing for too long, other garbage or even garbage containing pollutants is often added by other citizens, apparently the garbage already lying around lowers the inhibition threshold to dispose of your own garbage in this way.
Wild garbage dumps then often grow very quickly. Even dangerous goods such as petrol cans or oil containers end up in the wild garbage dump, as do normal building rubble , paint buckets, cigarette boxes, plastic bags , refrigerators, dishwashers and other household appliances . Wild rubbish dumps can be found in nature as well as in cities. Often they are covered by autumn leaves and overgrown by bushes. They often remain undetected and dangerous for years. Aside from environmental pollution, toxins or other dangerous objects (e.g. broken glass, heavy metal parts, building materials containing asbestos, etc.) can also pose an immediate danger to people and animals.
Roadsides and roadsides
Garbage on roadsides is pervasive and the most visible problem, even if he frequently distributed ( residual waste : cigarette butts, soda cans , fast food - and convenience product - packaging ), clustered in tilting occurs as. The inhibition threshold for disposal, especially from the car, is low and increases with lower driving speed. When mowing on the green strip , the plastic waste is shredded, the particles go into the ecosystem and pollute the soil and groundwater . Wherever leftovers stick to or in the garbage, one can assume that they will be eaten by animals - often along with the indigestible garbage. The Wittlich road maintenance depot collects around 70 tons of rubbish in the parking lots and along the roadsides each year . The Neukölln district office spent a total of 1.2 million euros in 2014–2016 for the disposal of building rubble and hazardous waste and the removal of "hazardous waste" or rubbish and damage caused by vandalism in the green spaces. Up to 5000 euros can be fined in Berlin for illegal garbage dumps, but often the polluter cannot be determined. Precisely because road maintenance companies in particularly affected regions spend a considerable part of their working time on the removal of roadside litter, the risk is seen that citizens see this as an incentive to throw it away. Some municipalities are supported by private or association initiatives for occasional garbage disposal.
hazards
Wild garbage dumps often contain a very high risk potential . Chemicals penetrate the soil and groundwater . Often nobody knows how dangerous the individual components of the wild garbage dump are. Electronic waste such as cell phones and computers contain lead , mercury , cadmium and other dangerous substances. These heavy metals alone are highly toxic to animals and humans. For example, a large part of the mercury is flushed into streams and rivers via the sewer system and ends up in the sea. It is absorbed by the fish through food and the respiratory organs and accumulates in them.
According to the LKA Mainz 2008, the illegal movement of hazardous waste such as electrical and electronic waste from Germany via Antwerp to Africa is a problem. In Africa, electronic waste is often burned in wild garbage dumps without the necessary protective measures in order to get to valuable metals such as precious metals and rare earths .
There are many wild garbage dumps in Italy around Naples . Several wild garbage dumps were found between orange plantations near Guilianese . Here the soil is heavily polluted with dioxin .
Elimination
The polluter is always responsible for removing a wild garbage dump. If he is not able to remove the garbage himself, the costs will be charged to him. If the polluter cannot be determined, the property owner is liable for the disposal of the wild garbage dump. In most cases these are cities and municipalities.
Wild rubbish dumps that have not been noticed or removed for a long time are considered contaminated sites , but often after decades, due to a lack of documents, it is no longer possible to determine whether it was originally a wild rubbish dump or a landfill approved according to the rules of the time .
Legal
Any waste disposal outside of the designated waste disposal facilities is illegal. This is either treated as an administrative offense or a criminal offense. For minor offenses, the catalog of fines that is valid depending on the federal state applies . According to Section 326 of the Criminal Code , illegal waste disposal may be a criminal offense. Even the storage of waste is illegal. Burning garbage outside of approved facilities is also a criminal offense and will be prosecuted. In theory, a discarded cigarette butt is considered illegal waste disposal. Since no harmful effects on the environment are to be expected due to the small amount , offenses of this kind are not pursued because they are insignificant . Criminally relevant cases can be punished with a fine or a prison sentence .
solutions
Some wild garbage dumps are caused by ignorance. Many citizens do not know that the disposal costs for used oil are already included in the purchase price. Other hazardous waste such as expired medicines, photographic chemicals , wood preservatives , adhesives, paint residues, fluorescent lights , energy saving lamps , solvents , acetone , paint thinner, pesticides , mercury , acids and bases can be handed in many cities for free in dedicated collection points. Some cities have set up websites and citizen phones to hear about new wild garbage dumps as soon as possible in order to clear them up. There are now Germany-wide commercial and private offers that citizens can use to inform cities and municipalities online or via an app about garbage finds.
literature
- Paul Jörg Koch: The dump syndrome: Syndromes of global change . Grin Verlag, ISBN 3-640-23065-5 .
- Poisonous and dangerous - the trash mafia shoving (PDF) ZDF, Frontal21, December 3, 2013.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Garbage heaps pile up on the roadside in the city of Essen . In: Der Westen , April 7, 2015. “When people from Essen spoil their own city and heaps of rubbish from the fridge, wooden shelves and mattresses pile up on the side of the road. Two examples from the city center. "
- ↑ a b c Rolf Uhlemeier: Garbage paves your way / annoyance: Where cars stop, garbage collects . In: Haller Kreisblatt , February 25, 2016. "Open the window and out: Motorists preferably dispose of packaging, beverage cups and the like where they have to drive slowly or stop."
- ↑ a b Lone fighters against the garbage on the roadside . In: Trierischer Volksfreund .
- ↑ Expensive rubbish on the roadside: Neukölln calls for cleaning . In: Morgenpost , March 10, 2016. “Neukölln has to spend millions to dispose of garbage illegally dumped on the streets. It was 800 tons in 2015 "
- ↑ Business park Mülheim-Kärlich: Garbage on the side of the road causes trouble . In: Rhein-Zeitung , December 30, 2015. “Mülheim-Kärlich. The edges of some of the streets in the district are repeatedly misused as illegal rubbish dumps by careless drivers, including around the Mülheim-Kärlich business park "
- ↑ The garbage on the roadside . In: Südwestpresse . “By the meter of plastic sheeting, vodka bottles, bicycles and Eternit plates in the Erms , wild garbage dumps and an illegal house discharge. The 500 brushes at the Metzingen marking plaster brought everything to light. "
- ↑ The Wild West of Electronic Waste
- ↑ Authorities start offensive against garbage mafia. In: Der Spiegel. June 10, 2008.
- ↑ Garbage Mafia Naples - current knowledge: gold mine garbage ( Memento from July 20, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
- ↑ Catalogs of fines
- ^ Hesse - Darmstadt Regional Council ( Memento from July 15, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Hazardous waste (special waste)
- ↑ Disposal of waste, illegal
- ↑ habengelder.de
- ↑ muell-weg.de