Belgrade Forest is a great escape point for those who want to get rid of the stress of Istanbul. Belgrade Forest is the most popular visitor in 9 large forests of Istanbul. The story of the name of this forest as Belgrad Forest is also very interesting. While Suleiman the Magnificent returned from the Serbian campaign in 1521, he returned with the prisoners he took from the Serbian capital Belgrade and placed these prisoners in a village in a forest near Sariyer. This village was called Belgrade and over time the forest became known as the Belgrad Forest. Even though the prisoners left the region over time, the name of this forest remained as the Belgrad Forest. Great importance was attached to the Belgrad Forest during the Ottoman period. The Sultans saw the Belgrad Forest as the heart of Istanbul. Edicts were issued to protect the safety and well-being of the forest. Various penalties, including execution, were imposed on those who harmed the trees and the environment. How about leaving the historical journey and discovering the Belgrad Forest today?
In light of this information, we decided to go to Belgrad Forest as Eyüboğlu students. We started collecting 3 people in a small area of this 5400-hectare forest. One question came to my mind: How much of this garbage we collected was plastic waste? Obviously, the things that came out of the garbage collection area shocked me. Have you ever thought that you will find plastic car mats in the forest? The first thing that greeted us in the forest was an embedded plastic car mat. Perhaps this was an indication that we would face greater disasters in the forest.
Nylon bags attached to tree branches, packages that fled under the ground, pet bottles floating instead of ducks in the pond ... Belgrad Forest was turned into a dump. Unfortunately, this forest, which we use to escape from the usual structure of Istanbul, has become a mirror to the ugliness of Istanbul.
After a while, we came across an abandoned picnic area. There were only two nylon bags on its surface. However, when we bought those bags, the view from below was horrible.
We found plastic bottles, glasses, sachets, bubble wrap, large plastic pieces laid on the surface, empty boxes, empty snack packaging and much more plastic litter. In addition to these plastics, there was also non-plastic waste such as a muddy and rusty barbecue, broken glass bottles and cigarette butts. We tried 20 minutes to clean this small area. 2 trash bags were filled only with the rubbish we saw here. When we collected all the garbage here, we noticed the stains in the soil and on the leaves. Imagine, this is a place to go away from stress. Can you find peace among this garbage?
As we proceeded on the pathway we followed to clean the environment, we saw another area full of trash. While collecting the trash here, people having a barbecue nearby saw us. We had a little chat with the people who had a barbecue while collecting the garbage in their area. We told people about our projects and goals. They also admired our sensitivity and stated that they would be more sensitive to the environment. This is a success in terms of creating awareness for our projects. At the end of the day, we had 7 bags of garbage and after examining the garbage in these bags, we realized that 5 of these 7 bags of garbage were made of plastic waste. Unfortunately, these 7 bags of garbage came out of only a small part of the Belgrad Forest. Let's imagine how much garbage would come out of the whole forest.
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