Radusha's Illegal Dump Cleared and Planted with Saplings: Now Comes the Hard Part, Keeping It Clean

The illegal dump in Radusha, in Saraj municipality on the edge of Skopje, has been cleared and saplings planted in its place. Mayor Muhamed Elmazi announced it, saying the cleanup was something residents asked for and a promise he made during the election campaign.

"Where there was garbage yesterday, today we are planting life," Elmazi wrote. The goal, he says, is for a place that once stood as a symbol of garbage to become a clean, green space for the community.

The promise has been kept, and that deserves to be said. But anyone who has watched illegal dumps knows how this goes: a cleared patch quickly becomes a new dump if there's no regular maintenance, no oversight and no working waste collection system. The saplings are a good sign. A dumpster and a truck that actually comes by on schedule would be an even better one.

So the question for the municipality is a concrete one: starting tomorrow, where are the people of Radusha supposed to throw their trash? If there's no answer to that, a year from now we'll be writing about the same spot again.