Hemp waste was dumped in the De Onlanden nature reserve last weekend. It concerns between seventy and a hundred garbage bags, thinks forester Bart Zwiers of Stichting Natuurmonumenten. A colleague of his found the bags on the Woudrustlaan near Peize. This concerns potting soil, plants, drainage pipes and styrofoam-like materials. Zwiers suspects that the items were dumped between Friday and Saturday morning.
“It costs a lot of money to clean up this mess,” said the ranger. “Those grains are very dangerous for animals, especially for birds, they eat them. They get it in their stomach and it doesn’t leave there. The result is that they think they have had enough food, no longer looking go for food and eventually starve. Then the Styrofoam also ends up in the cycle, because a dead bird is eaten by another animal.”