"Years for Recovery". What difficulties will have to fight eco -activists after the war - the head of the NGO Ukraine without garbage answers
- Tell us, how does the sorting space work first and Ukraine without garbage now? - Yes, indeed, for us and for many other organizations, businesses in Ukraine, this situation has become unusual, we were not ready for it in plan, that we had no such experience, for the most part, I do not talk about the eastern regions. And on the eve of February 24 we held a meeting with the team, told about our action plan. If something happens, we have to ensure both our visitors and our visitors to close.
So it happened. And so, in the first month, we just did the fact that everyone had to take care of themselves and their safety. The first two weeks I took out children from Ukraine, my colleagues. For the most part, people remained in Ukraine. But after a week or two it became clear that we need to use our managerial potential. That is, we have many connections, many acquaintances, friendly dating.
And we thought that we can use it in favor, that is, to help both the Armed Forces and territorial defense. Because the query was then crazy. And immediately we started volunteer work. Video of the day was implemented by three projects. The first was due to the fact that we purchased thermal underwear for the Armed Forces. It was 300 sets, we received money from a donor. And another 300 sets were presented to us by the manufacturer, we gave it to people who were in refugee status.
Then we purchased medicines, which in cooperation with a large international project, purchased medicines for about 800 thousand hryvnias, which was very important for us - to buy medicines from Ukrainian organizations. That is, we purchased from manufacturers, which also found ourselves in a difficult situation. Some of them lost their warehouses because they were destroyed by hostilities. But I think it was a contribution to both the economy and to meet the need for medicines.
And the third project, it was my initiative to set up a sewing shop and various clothing for the military. Because when we calculated how much it costs in intermediaries, we realized that we will be raising a lot of money for a very small number of things. And so we completed this project, we found a fabric, found a shop, employed about 10 people. They still work in the Dnieper. That is, we did it. However, over time, it became clear that our mission is to keep this balance.
The balance is environmental. We realized that we need to be on this front, and no war will stop our plans. It was very important that we stopped being afraid and we began to prepare for the opening, continue our work. It was strategically correct. Because we did not expect that this year there would be a work on the project of the Waste Management Act. And just we were ready to advocate to cover this problem that happened to the law and try to even make changes, and some changes were made.
If we were not ready, they would be immersed in volunteer affairs, we would not have been done. - As far as I remember, there was a rather debatable issue with this law, the deputies did not agree that there were no changes there, which motivated that we needed all European integration processes as soon as possible, and this is one of the requirements of the EU to be as soon as possible to approve.
How much did you manage to hold this advocate? To take advantage of wartime time, the deputies that will harm the country? - The fact is that it was a purely manipulation - to say that the adoption of such a law somehow contributes to our status of candidate. The EU did not require us at all, if not taken into account the anti -corruption requirement that was not implemented, the adoption of this law. It was just the case when we had to show something we were working.
Therefore, I believe that everyone was manipulated, which is really important. But at that moment it was not important. Secondly, our community was indignant that this law was called European integration. But he completely abolished the implementation of three important European directives. He is not what he abolished, he distorted the meaning of these eurobes. And the other day I just explained in what points it happened, I can call it a crime.
Because when Europeans see this document, they read it, they will analyze, they will say: where is European integration here? Where did you fulfill the terms of the Association Agreement with the EU, where in which points? When three eurovraders are specifically indicated. But they went against those eurobuilders. And when experts say that this law will help us to close these landfills, just in this law they recorded the legalization of landfills for years.
Because the landfills called the landfill disposal, not the removal or storage of landfills, as required by directive. Because the term of burial in Europe is simply forbidden to use. That is, waste in landfills cannot be buried. And a number of such points are very bad. But now, when we already have a candidate's status, we, the public, have a full moral right to demand amendments to this law so that it is really like a European integration.
Therefore, the work continues, and this is only the beginning. But I did not like how quickly the deputies agreed with this manipulation. - I remember that in the first days, weeks after the start of a full -scale Russian invasion, volunteers and just indifferent people of Kiev first of all turned to bases to have raw materials for Molotov cocktails.
Tell us how all this story worked? And how did your reconstruction of the center happen? Did many people come? - From the very beginning, when we needed "we needed bottles", we so carefully put all the containers with bottles on the street, and it worked. Because in the first weeks, the most people went to whom the children who began to export their children abroad. Therefore, it was correct to leave that on the street, and everyone came to take away.
I am still worried about the fate of those bottles, because fortunately, they have not been used. I would like them to return to processing, so that the people who take those bottles were responsible for recycling responsibly. You know this front is very important because it is economical. We are part of the chain. We collect recyclables, someone exports it, processes it, and someone processes it.
And this is a large number of people who are involved in enterprises, and if we stand, then some processes will set up in other players. And so we show an example that everything is on time. This is an economic front, we need to work, nourish these processes so that we do not think about how much money will be left, where do we go? To go abroad for earnings or how? In fact, this decision to open up, we were pushed by our visitors.
Because they wrote it: when do you open? Can you send you? If in the first days we were simply afraid to allow it, because a rocket could fly, and a person may suffer during the trip. We believed that it was irresponsible - to open. Until we realized that there is air anxiety, it means that a person has time to go to storage and so on. And at first we simply did not even allow ourselves.
But over time, people began to ask, and came, and even sent parcels from Kharkiv, someone moved to Kiev with their garbage from Kharkiv. That is, people continued to do it. I think it was the value for them that they took from a peaceful life and continue to do it, because for them it is a sign of normal life. And again, the war should not stop the war. - The problem of garbage during the war.
Are there any ways to minimize harm? Are there any ways to reduce this harm? - Indeed household waste is not the biggest damage to the environment now. Because there are many toxic waste that is caused by bombing. Bombs contain a bunch of heavy metals, toxic metals. And many lands simply cannot use for years at all. Neither for growing, nor for people to live there. There is little talk of it today, but it is really the case.
We have lost many territories in order to conduct economic activity on them. Speaking of garbage, some people left. Consumption has changed. That is, the consumption that was before there was a lot of packaging, this is not present today. Today, the organic part, organic waste, predominate in the garbage. Because the level of well -being affects the morphology of waste. So now, I think that the load on garbage carriers has decreased significantly, this is the first.
And secondly: yes, that does not mean that you need to stop sorting. But another factor appeared. This is the destruction of processing enterprises. For example, the glass collected in Kiev was taken to Gostomel to a glass factory, and it was destroyed completely. It is a big-great loss for years until this infrastructure is rebuilt, this object is again. And it is unclear whether it will be here in the Kiev region, or in a completely different city.
But there are glasses in Ukraine, just now the question is that utilities have to accumulate it, then take it to Western Ukraine. That is, there are factors that have completely changed processes. But I think the garbage has become smaller. The garbage that was caused by destruction is many. But this is a completely different class that you still know, discourses about what to do with it, how to process it.
There is no clear answer yet, how safe it is - to process this mixture, because in the middle there may be unobtrusive shells and so on. By the way, I recently saw a post of representative of the Verkhovna Rada, who said that a foreign investor is an Israeli investor, who will process construction waste, waste and destruction. It has technologies and so on. I thought: class. But then she thought how much business in Ukraine did it before the war and still ready to do.
And business has donated so much money to the army, but today it is getting a reaction when other players from other countries will go to this market and they will not have room here. They will just be forced to leave. Go bankrupt and so on. That is, the government of some state, Israel or Poland can finance the activities of such a company in us, understanding its long -term plan, to become entrenched in the territory. And our domestic companies do not have such a plan.
Unfortunately, the state cannot support them with normal money, loans. You can read the post of Vasyl Khmelnitsky, who wrote about such a case where the state could not help money. Although the company could also fit into the construction of the facility. Therefore, it is also a big question that affects the garbage, but here is our business that wants to work, which has already done a lot to win the enemy.