The Green Cleanup drive is taking place in Croatia on Saturday for the eighth year in a row as part of the second World Cleanup Day, with volunteers cleaning waste from beaches, rivers, forests and streets at over 117 locations in the country.

Waste is being cleaned up in 42 local government units today, while on Friday it was cleaned in 60 educational institutions, Helena Traub of Zmergo, the drive coordinator in Croatia, told Hina.

“More than 350,000 volunteers from Croatia have collected approximately 30,000 tonnes of waste across the state over the past seven years,” she said. “The outstanding turnout, but also the worrying quantity of waste, are indicators of the increasing importance citizens attach to the environment and a strong signal that we still have a lot more to do.”

Traub said the problem of waste at illegal landfills was increasingly big and that the majority of them contained household waste, but also large quantities of construction and even hazardous waste.

Illegal landfills pose a great danger to the environment, primarily due to the pollution of soil, air, waters and seas. In summer, they are often the source of fires.

The increasing number of volunteers taking part in the drive every year is an indicator of the good will and ecological awareness of some Croatian citizens and the need to balance the relationship between man and nature, said Traub.