RMK cleaned up 152 tonnes of rubbish from state forests 06.04

“It is that time again, which we go through every spring, where, besides the abandoned worn out winter tyres, construction and domestic waste are melting out of the snow,” Chief Forester at RMK Andres Sepp notes. Looking from afar, you cannot tell if hepaticas are growing along with windflowers or someone’s “treasures”, which were no longer needed in their household, is gleaming between the trees. It is not pleasant to extend your hand to pick some hepaticas and, instead, to bump into dirty packages filled with grey muck or nowadays also face masks. The current forest situation shows that we still need to continue with cleaning up rubbish in the future.”


People bring mainly domestic and construction waste and furniture to the forests but also glass, metal and other dangerous waste. Last year, 79,000 euros was spent on cleaning up 152 tonnes of rubbish. Ragn-Sells and Eesti Keskkonnateenused completed the works. You can find the pictures of the rubbish piles from the RMK Flickr album “Rubbish in state forests”.

There are also communities who wish to keep their forests clean of rubbish altogether. For example, MTÜ Geopeitus members cleaned forests near Sõrve’s former landfill, in Harku Parish. Old toys, moss-covered footwear, shoes with interesting patterns and striped trousers were carried out of the forest. They gathered a container’s worth of trash (18 m3) which definitely does not belong to the nature.


We encourage everyone to ask from their friends and family: “Where do you bring your domestic waste? Do you have a contract for organised waste transport?” A great tool is the map application kuhuviia.ee, where you can find the nearest waste stations and learn which types of waste you can bring there. However, if you find rubbish in the forest, please let us know by e-mailing the state helpline 1247@1247.ee or calling 1247. If we cannot identify the person responsible for throwing the rubbish in the forest, the land owner will clean the forest – in case of state forest, RMK will take care of it.

RMK is the keeper, protector and manager of all forests and other diverse nature biomes belonging to the Republic of Estonia. While managing forests, RMK earns revenue for the state, grows forest renovation material and organises forest and nature protection works. Additionally, RMK creates exercising opportunities on its recreation and protected areas and shapes the environmental awareness.

Further information:
Andres Sepp
Chief Forester at RMK
andres.sepp@rmk.ee
+372 505 5932

Sille Ader
Head of the Communications Department at RMK
sille.ader@rmk.ee
+372 5666 5896