Spent boards of "xalola", cans, bags containing sweets, chokanji, also consumed... I hold a large garbage bag in one hand, and with the other I put into it everything I come across that does not belong to nature.
I'm counting trees under a bench, under which there is a bag full of garbage.
It has a gas station logo on it. So, on Sundays, people go to buy something, come to sit in beautiful nature and pollute it. Although, there is so much garbage around us, so it is evident that they do it not only on Sundays, but every day.
They don't think that some other kids in ten or twenty years will want to enjoy themselves next to the Zeta river and that they have to leave a piece of this paradise to them too.
The bag is full of drunk cans of energy drinks, next to the bench, in the planter, croissant wrappers poke through the green branches, and a few meters away, in the uncut grass, various plastic bottles.
It's Independence Day, May 21. My country celebrates its fifteenth birthday today. It did not deserve to be destroyed at every step, this country was not created for that. We do not cherish this beauty, on the contrary, we destroy it by throwing waste wherever we find ourselves.
Precisely because of this, I accepted the invitation of the Citizens' Initiative "Save Sinjajevina" to give Montenegro a gift of cleaning for its 15th birthday.
They said that they are planning an action under the slogan "Let's clean up Sinjajevina, let's clean up Montenegro".
In the beginning there were a few of us, we choose a location and decide to invite other nature lovers to join us.
Environmentalists are starting to come forward, we are calling scouts, mountaineers, journalists, hardened fighters for the protection of Montenegrin rivers, mountains, sea, nature...
Already in the first days, I am happy with the number of people who call, even though they know that we are not preparing a birthday cake, that there are no fireworks, torches, musicians - there are only garbage bags, gloves, good will and the desire to start the final reckoning with garbage.
It's simple. A war on garbage was announced and in a few days cleaning was agreed in all Montenegrin cities, at more than 30 locations.
Before the action, Milan from GI "Save Sinjajevina" said that, in addition to a birthday gift to the state, it was also a way for the defenders of Sinjajevina to repay everyone who helped them last year, from all cities. They also called the Army, they will join the action.
In the middle of the month, I guess that nature lovers from Rožaj, Plav and Petnjica will be the best on May 21st, I return home and arrange cleaning in Danilovgrad. Milica calls from Herceg Novi and says that there is a little trash left in that city, and I am thinking that we need a company for Danilovgrad and that we would not be able to clean everything again.
From Plav, Admir reports that everyone will clean - citizens, mountaineers, rangers, children, pensioners, the president of the municipality, workers of the communal company... Ferid, Haris and Ermin mobilized everyone in Rožaje, soccer players, scouts, old and young, small children, municipal officials, communal workers...
Aldin organized the citizens of Petnjica. Every now and then, nice messages arrive in the Viber group - Sanja and Kaća are gathering the team in Berane, Vladet in Andrijevica, Boško in Mojkovac. Dino and Denis call from Bijelo Polje, in other cities there are Tamara, Peđa, Veljko, Anica, Atija, Bojana, Mišo, Filip, Jovana, Marin, Milan, two Milicas, Persida, Aleksandar, Miloš, Dragiša, Todor, one more Veljko, Verica, Vuk, Saša, Štjepan ...
A few days before, we make an agreement to gather in all cities from 9 to 10 a.m. and start a big birthday work action. Perhaps the biggest since the state restored our independence.
Danilovgrad, where I was also, we cleaned in two locations. Two small but selected teams - in one Dragiša with her family and friends, in the other Persida, Poka, Gara, Nada, Lazar, Marija, Jovana and me.
The employees of the Communal Company are waiting for us at the 9th of December Square, we explain the plan to them and we set off.
I'm trying to write down what we found that day. The head of a beautiful doll with earthen hair. I guess she was rejected there for so long, that they grew together. Hair dryer, tape recorder, parts of the refrigerator, diapers, wardrobe, shoes, sneakers, glass bottles and jars, moldings, copper, iron, metal wires... Tires, from bicycles and motorcycles, boards, TV remote, and half of someone's roof.
We are on the right bank of Zeta, I come across a real "mine" of garbage. Someone had obviously brought the garbage, shoveled it down the slope, hoping that the river would carry it away when it rose. No, we didn't even manage to tear off some of the waste from the branches and brambles. I throw bricks at Maria and I see some fabric, I take it by the end that sticks out and tear it. It appears to be a flag. I'm pulling out a whole flag from that pile of garbage - "Let's live better, DPS". Cyrillic. Half of the team that cleans the younger me than her. Who knows who threw that and when, it seems to me that it was from 1998.
I send photos to the group and see that our coasts, mountains, lakes, fortresses, riverbeds, hills are being cleaned by hundreds of people, aged from three to 83 years old. The army is with us in Kolašin, firefighters in Kotor, utilities in several municipalities. Filip reports that about twenty of them cleaned from 10 a.m. to 15 p.m. - they filled about 150 garbage bags and about 100 bags of rubble. They cleaned several smaller landfills around the Goražda fortress, and garbage from the fortress itself.
There is a real ecological army in Plav, garbage trucks have been picked up, on Ljubović Peđa hill, the team has picked up three trucks of dry branches. Rožaje Blista, Berane also, Petnjica, Plužine, Gusinje, Budva, Tivat, Herceg Novi, Nikšić, Savnik, Žabljak, Mojkovac, Podgorica, Bijelo Polje, Danilovgrad, Tuzi, Bar, Pljevlja, Andrijevica where the team found furniture and a television in spring bed on Trešnjevik. I can see in the photos that tons of garbage has been collected.
I read the messages - 18 bags, twenty, a dozen, one, 150 bags, two trucks, three, a truck...
I am also contacted by friends who are in Cetinje, for a somewhat different celebration. And they will pick up the trash after themselves.
We succeeded, the birthday party was great - if only on that day, Montenegro woke up as an ecological country, as it is by design.
A new labor action is already being agreed - clean Montenegro.
Bonus video:
