Illegal Dumps in Long Beach Area
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ILLEGAL DUMPS IN LONG BEACH AREA Ulcinj, Montenegro April 2020 1 2 Author: Azra Vuković, biologist Preparation of report supported by: Elvir Zečević, tourism and hospitality manager Anita Radulović, environmental protection specialist Slaven Minić, student Project: Velika plaža without plastic Implemented by: NGO Green Life Financialy supported by: The Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation acting for the founders of the initiative Beyond Plastic Med (Bemed) This report is developed in the frame of the project „Velika plaža without plastic“, implemented by NGO Green Life. Project is supported by The Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation in the frame of the initiative Beyond Plastic Med (Bemed). The project aims at raising awareness and changing behaviour related to the single use plastic, with the focus on several groups: school children, tourists and institution. Overall goal of the project is better environmental conditions in the area of Long beach (Velika plaža) in Ulcinj through reducing amount of litter, especially single use plastic. One of specific goals is mapping of the dumps in the hinterland of Long beach with special focus on plastic waste and discussion on further steps with institutions. The situation is presented in this report. 3 4 1. INTRODUCTION Ulcinj is a town in the southern coast of Montenegro with the population of 19.921 people. It has beautiful sandy beach 13 km long and very short tourism season, with the highest frequency of tourists in the period from July to August. In 2018, there were officially 1.240.445 tourist nights in Ulcinj. In 2019, this number is even bigger and it achieved 2.086.385. It is assumed that the number of tourists is higher than official statistics. Most of the tourists are situated in the area of Long beach and these numbers can show the pressure on the waste management system during the summer months. The idea behind this report is to map the dumps in the area of Long beach hinterland, and to the extent possible, to describe morphology of the waste and its amount. The reason lies in the fact that there are problems with the waste management in the hinterland of Long beach and from year to year waste is accumulating in the area without proper response of the competent institutions. Exact data on generated amount of waste in Ulcinj does not exist. According to the State Waste Management Plan1 and Local municipal and non-hazardous construction waste management plan2 during 2013 it was generated 11.625t of communal waste in Ulcinj, out of which was collected 9.328t, or 80%. This means that 20% of the generated waste was not collected and is somewhere out in the nature. In the territory of Ulcinj only communal (municipal) waste is collected and disposed to sanitary landfill Možura. Waste is collected from 69,8 % of the territory. There is no information on the morphology of the waste nor separation. According to the official statistics in Montenegro (State Waste Management plan) percentage of plastic waste in total amount of waste is from 10 – 20% depending on the area. Percentage of packaging waste in total amount of waste, based on the morphological composition of waste, is 41.79% including plastic waste, paper and cardboard, glass and metal. Most of the waste ends up in sanitary, temporary or unregulated landfills. On global level, role and importance of plastic is constantly growing. Production of plastic achieved 322 millions of tons in 2015, which is 20 times more than 50 years ago. In next 20 years it is expected to double again. Reuse and recycling of plastic is very low in European level, especially compared to paper, glass and metal. Waste disposed in the hinterland of Long beach poses major threat to marine ecosystems and threatens to become marine litter, especially light plastic waste. It is important to highlight that 600 ha of the territory of Long beach are protected in the category Monument of nature based on the Decision of Republic Institute for Nature Conservation from 28th of December 1968. Based on the Law on nature protection, there was a need to implement revision of this area which was not implemented until now. Long beach and Ada Bojana are Important Plant Area (IPA), due to the presence of several plant species protected by the Law. Long beach and Ada Bojana are Emerald sites. 1 State Waste Management Plan for the period 2015 - 2020 2 Local municipal and non-hazardous construction waste management plan for the period 2016 – 2020 5 2. SUMMARY Illegal dumps on area of Long beach hinterland are mapped according to the presented methodology and results are given in following pages. In the mapped area of Long beach, there were recognized 22 locations of illegal dumps. For this report dumps are defined according to the amount of waste disposed on the location as small, medium and large. Five of 22 locations were defined as dumps with large amount of waste, 9 of them as dumps with medium amount of waste and 8 are defined as dumps with small amount of waste. Table 1: Dumps in relation with the amount of waste disposed on location Total illegal dumps Small amount of waste Medium amount of Large amount of waste waste 22 8 9 5 Approximately area of 26 670m² is covered with waste. Most of the locations are covered with mixed waste. There is a lot of construction waste in almost all locations, but there is communal (municipal) waste as well. It seams that locations formed as a dump side with construction waste after some time becomes locations with mixed waste. There is no any location with only municipal waste, but municipal waste is present in mixed waste locations, total 10 of them. Construction waste is disposed on 9 locations and bulky waste on 3 locations. Table 2: Dumps in relation with the type of waste disposed on location Total illegal Municipal waste Bulky waste Construction Mixed waste dumps waste 22 0 3 9 10 Illustration 1: Presented locations of illegal dumps in Long beach 6 3. METODOLOGY Within this assignment the area of Long beach was mapped in the terms of presence of waste dumps, their locations, waste morphology, amount, area covered and possible source. Information was collected at 6th of October 2019 during one day. Photo documentation was collected same day. With this activity it was covered area starting from Port Milena to Ada Bojana (without Ada Bojana) and following the roads in the direction of the sea and the beaches. Location was defined with mobile phone and Google maps. It is possible that it is not 100% precise. Waste morphology was defined based on the present situation as presented below: Household waste (municipal waste) represents everyday used items discarded by the public. Bulky waste items include discarded furniture, large appliances and plumbing fixtures. Branches, brush, logs and other green waste are also categorized as bulky waste. It includes waste from the beaches such as desk chairs, umbrellas and similar. Construction waste consists of unwanted material produced directly or indirectly by the construction. This includes building materials such as insulation, electrical wiring, shingle and roofing. It may contain lead, asbestos, and other hazardous substances. Mixed waste is combination of all/some of above listed categories. It was defined only based on the comprehensive overview without details. Amount of waste was defined based on the quantity in following categories: Small amount in the cases when the waste is scattered over the surface and does not form piles or small amount of waste in small piles (usually one discharge). Medium amount in the cases when waste is piled but does not cover a large area. Large amount when waste covers large area of surface and contains big amount of waste. Area covered by waste is defined approximately. Possible source is defined based on the waste morphology and assumption. Photo documentation was done for every location. Video documentation (by drone) was done for some locations. It is important to say that intention of this report is not to give the precise amount or type of waste disposed on the area of Long beach, but to give an overview of the situation with the illegal dumps in the area. 7 4. ILLEGAL DAMPS IN THE HINTERLAND OF LONG BEACH Long beach is situated 4km from town of Ulcinj. It is bordered by the canal Port Milena on west and river Bojana on east. From the existing regional road (R15) to the north it extends to the sea. It has an average width of about 1,5km and a length of about 13 km. During the mapping it was noticed that most of the illegal dumps are in the area next to inner road connecting the beaches which goes in parallel with the main road. This road is hidden from the main road and fluctuation of people in the period out of season here is very small. This makes it easier to dispose unwanted and unneeded materials in the nature. Out of 22 mapped locations, five locations were defined as a large ones because of the large amount of waste disposed in these locations, 9 of them are defined as medium with medium amount of waste disposed here, and 8 are defined as a locations with small amount of waste. Besides these locations, there are probably some more that have been missed in this report. Also, it is important to emphasize that there is plastic waste present almost everywhere such as light plastic bags, plastic bottles, food packaging, etc. Communal or municipal waste are not most common waste disposed in this area, but it is present in seven locations.