Step 1: Gather a population of 1.6 million people.
Step 2: Have them lose faith in the ‘greater good.’
Step 3: Go along with the belief that one piece of trash can’t hurt.
Congratulations — you have successfully built a landfill.
If you are in Kosovo, and you’d like a visual representation of the steps above, feel free to look around you.
As a tourist, it might seem like the country’s beauty lies in the snowy crown of Gjeravica and the hiking trails of Rugova, but Kosovo has so many more peaks than its breathtaking scenery. The beauty of Kosovo is in the mundane routine one develops before heading to work in the morning, the anger of fellow passengers on the bus who push and are disorderly, or even, those Friday nights you were not planning to go out on, but you do – and you end up having 3 glasses of wine while running into people you haven’t talked to since the third grade. Kosovo is like a childhood friend. She knows our stories, our laughter and struggles, and we know hers. She is our culture, the words we speak and the dialect we use.
Despite the deep love and pride we hold for this land and our fight for it, the way we treat Kosovo today is anything but patriotic. Kosovo is meant to be beautiful and precious. So why don’t we treat it like so?
Of the 1.6 million of us, no one seems to take responsibility for the ecological and environmental issues facing Kosovo. The psychology of excuses is evident. Out of 1.6 million people, each one believes that “a single piece of trash won’t hurt.” As a result, we have 1.6 million pieces of rubbish that no one can account for – a landfill.
It seems that people assume someone else will clean it up, and when responsibility is deferred across millions, no one feels personally accountable. Convenience always seems to prevail over the common good. Throwing a wrapper on the street might feel harmless and easy at first, but when that wrapper is multiplied by the millions, it results in the trash we step over every day, all while looking polished as ever, ready to soak up the sun with an espresso at hand. The irony is sharp, and if we continue down this road, the plastic bags we step over might just end up becoming our national flower.
This psychology of excuses doesn’t just add up; it spreads. This is how a domino effect begins, and it can work in both directions. If the majority throws trash, others copy. But if the majority refuses to litter, suddenly littering becomes a strange act – one that makes you stand out for all the wrong reasons.
Let’s do it!
With pollution at a tipping point, Kosovo can take inspiration from Estonia, a country of similar size that has successfully turned around its environmental fortunes. Estonia’s Environmental Performance Index (EPI) of 75.3, the highest among the countries scored, demonstrates how social mobilization, along with norm changes, significantly impacts the public’s perception of the environment. The Environmental Performance Index evaluates how well countries handle high-priority environmental issues like waste management, air and water quality, biodiversity and climate policy. In essence, it shows how well a nation safeguards its ecosystems and public health – a quality Estonia effectively demonstrates through both policy and citizen engagement.
According to the Politics and Space Journal, in the early 1990s, the Estonian government determined that it lacked the technical or financial resources to clean up Estonia’s Soviet-era pollution. Yet, the data demonstrate that, during the decade of 1990s, Estonia also became adept at cleaning up old contamination. On 3 May 2008, approximately 3% of Estonia’s population gathered voluntarily in public spaces across Estonia for just one day and helped clean up unwanted litter and residue. Called “Teeme Ära!” (Let’s Do It!), the event made a vast difference to Estonia’s waste problem, prompting the initiative to go global.
For Estonia, these efforts did not stop there; it now boasts high levels of civic engagement with environmental issues. Born from the “Teeme Ära!” initiative, Estonians continue to participate in World Cleanup Day, a date that appears to have become part of the country’s civic identity. In addition, Estonia has high recycling rates compared to the regional average, and over the last years, its investments in renewable energy and EU compliance pollution controls have also increased. Joining the EU in 2004, Estonia has since ensured the best sustainable practice. In Estonia, schools and NGOs cover environmental topics and educate the public from an early age. Even data systems are made public, so that citizens have no room to lack awareness of their country’s environmental state.
Meanwhile, in Kosovo, data published by the UNDP in the 21st edition of Public Pulse have revealed that the three major issues reported in the country were unemployment (26.7%), poverty (24.3%) and the environment (10.1%). In the same survey, 14.5% of respondents in Kosovo also reported having no knowledge of their right to live in a clean and healthy environment.
