One of the most special nature reserves in our province is seriously polluted with litter: the Biesbosch. This waste comes from visitors or is carried along by rivers that flow into the Biesbosch. About 94 percent of the waste consists of plastic, according to research by Rijkswaterstaat. Staatsbosbeheer has great difficulty keeping the area clean and is sounding the alarm with provinces and municipalities about this, reports the TV program Pointer (KRO-NCRV).
Recreational waste has increased enormously in recent years. Mainly because of the new groups of visitors who discovered the Biesbosch during the corona pandemic and the warm summers, forester Harm Blom of Staatsbosbeheer told Pointer. “The Biesbosch is a large public toilet.”
Accumulate
In addition, the nature reserve periodically receives a lot of waste from the rivers. In the Biesbosch, the only freshwater tidal area in Europe, the foothills of the Rhine and Meuse come together and that water carries waste, which sometimes comes all the way from Germany.
“An analysis of our data shows that litter accumulates in the Biesbosch. We find ten times as much there as along the other rivers,” says Joost Barendrecht. He is project leader of IVN Nature Education and Clean Rivers. Clean Rivers conducts research into plastic and litter on riverbanks. “The Biesbosch is the drain of Europe,” says Barendrecht.
microplastics
Staatsbosbeheer does not have the financial means to keep the area clean, adds forester Blom. “Eighteen people work in the Biesbosch and we don’t get a euro for waste processing. In fact, we do that for free. And that time and costs are again deducted from nature management.”
According to him, the waste problem in the Biesbosch is so great that it is far beyond the control of nature managers.’ They have started a campaign with a number of parties to keep the area clean, aimed at influencing the behavior of the public. Twice a year, volunteers clear up junk on a number of banks that are accessible to people. But the other litter is not cleaned up. “We don’t know what lies in the rough where no one comes.”
plastic soup
And it is also unknown what the effects of this will be. ‘We used to think that waste all flowed to the sea and that plastic soup was created there, but a great deal remains behind on the banks,’ explains river researcher Barendrecht. Plastic breaks down into smaller pieces. And the point is: they don’t perish.”