The 50-day tour of the mobile exhibition of 'Greenpeace of Russia' ended in Yaroslavl: ecologists took a bus to 15 cities with an exposition devoted to separation of waste collection. On June 27, activists presented a traveling exhibition for the authorities and the city's media and made a lecture, and on June 28 they opened an exhibition in the city center.
Opinion of the authorities
The Greenpeace exhibition was visited by Roman Kolesov, Deputy Prime Minister of the Yaroslavl Region.
'Today, the international organization Greenpeace, which actively deals with environmental protection, visited Yaroslavl,' the official said. 'Its goal is to tell Yaroslavl people about separate waste collection. According to the estimates of this organization, 10% of the citizens in Yaroslavl can collect waste separately, we are on the 38th place in the country, even outstripped Moscow. Regional authorities, when choosing a waste management operator, plan to develop separate waste collection. Annually, we identify about 200 places of unauthorized waste disposal, which we actively liquidate.
Opinion of the activists
Alexander Ivannikov, coordinator of the project on separate waste collection, told reporters about the exhibition and its role in solving the waste problem:
‘There are lots of public activists in Yaroslavl, a good situation with separate collection, but in Russia there are cities where 60% of the inhabitants have access to separate collection, so we share this experience with the rest. And in Yaroslavl, for example, you can go to the administration's website and find a map of places where you can hand over dangerous waste. We made this exhibition a year and a half ago, it was created by well-known Russian artists. Our bus is divided into two thematic parts. One part is a garbage evil, how not to handle, burn. Then people go to the second part of the bus, where they can find out what can be done from secondary raw materials, how can you give a second life to things. For example, you can make a cover for an athletic field from an old tire. Another important element is the stand, which calls for the rejection of plastic packaging and disposable dishes, we have many ideas how to live without garbage. Our bus has already become legendary. In Russia there is a very big garbage problem. 70 million tons annually are buried in landfills. Separate collection is one of the ways to solve it. In the civilized world, garbage is collected separately. We want to show that residents are able to solve this problem, because we all participate in the formation of garbage.'
About a single operator for waste management
'A single operator now is an entity,' Ivannikov said. 'This process has already been tested on the example of Moscow, where they signed a contract for 150 billion rubles. It was tested with mistakes and miscalculations. By 2017, all regions had to sign contracts with waste collection operators. It is very important that separate collection is reflected in the guidance documents.'
Ordinary citizens gathered at a lecture on the separate collection of waste. Greenpeace activist Dmitry Nesterov spoke about the experience of separate waste collection in different countries of the world and introduced local activists who engaged in environmental activities.
On May 12, the Greenpeace bus visited Voronezh, and on May 22 – Saransk.
Daniil Kuznetsov, photo of the author, «7x7»
