New website launched to report illegal trash in Brussels

You don’t have to walk far in Brussels to see that it is not one of the world’s cleanest cities. The capital of Europe has been trying for years to tackle the problem of rubbish on the streets – whether illegal dumping or citizen carelessness. But so far the results have been unimpressive.

The worst areas of the city for dumping trash are central Brussels and Anderlecht, which ranked among the dirtiest municipalities in the country in a 2012 Test-Aankoop survey.

Yesterday, Brussels MP Brigitte De Pauw created a page on her website called Kuis Mijn Buurt (Clean My Neighbourhood), which allows citizens to report rubbish left lying around in the street. De Pauw wants to collect information sent in so that she can identify the problem neighbourhoods and then come up with a solution, whether it be prevention or prosecution of offenders.

“The whole problem often starts because people have the wrong mentality,” she said. “The apple core is just chucked away, the dog mess left behind in the street, the broken chair dumped next to the nearest rubbish bin.” 

She believes that many people in Brussels regard it as the local council’s job to clean up the trash, rather than seeing it as their own responsibility to keep the streets clean. “We won’t get a clean city until we change the mentality of Brussels citizens,” she said.

www.brigittedepauw.com/kuis-mijn-buurt

photo courtesy www.facebook.com/groups/dirtybrussels