Eco-activists of Arkhangelsk have released "Villages with a Clear Conscience", a guide on the responsible waste management practices. They dedicated it to the introduction of separate waste collection in the northern countryside and told how residents of the most remote villages managed to send tons of recyclable materials not for burial, but for recycling. The 42 Environmental Movement reported this.
According to ecoactivists, more than 30 initiatives for separate waste collection are being implemented in the districts of Arkhangelsk Oblast (in the settlements of Severoonezhsk, Kotlas, Velsk, Privodino, Bolshoe Anisimovo, Urdoma, Onega, Lyamtsa, Pyanda and others). Most of them appeared in 2019–2020, as the residents of the region were opposing a project for the burial of waste from Moscow in the south of the region.
In the brochure "Villages with a Clear Conscience", the activists described some initiatives to introduce separate waste collection in the northern countryside in detail and told how residents of the most remote villages managed to send tons of recyclable materials not for burial, but for recycling.
The guide includes six stories based on interviews with activists from the villages of Bolshoe Anisimovo, Morshchikhinskaya, Lyamtsa, Purnema, Pyanda, Privodino, and Urdoma in Arkhangelsk Oblast.
“Why do we call it stories, rather than guidelines? First, because there is no universal recipe for organizing a separate collection. You need to take many factors into account: where is the nearest secondary raw material collector, the number of residents, the roads' quality, and many others. In addition, the story of some first-person experience — when they explain why they chose such containers, why they placed a recycling point there, how they started implementing the project — is much more appealing,” Nadezhda Inieva, the guide’s author, a member of the 42 Movement’s coordination board, commented.
The guide's circulation is 300 copies. A soft copy is also available. The online presentation of the guide took place on April 8 and is available here.
In addition, activists of the 42 Movement have opened the Sea of Garbage Photo Project on the fourth floor of the Dobrolyubov library in Arkhangelsk. The exhibition includes photos taken by Anastasia Kochneva, the coordinator of the 42 Environmental Movement, during a summer expedition to the Onega Peninsula. Eco-activists found that 80% of the waste on the White Sea coast was plastic.
“It is necessary to recognize the problem’s existence to solve it. Visitors to the exhibition will have the opportunity to see how garbage is embedded in the environment, blends in, and practically becomes new flora and fauna. The exhibition is educational in nature, and I hope that everyone will think about how to prevent the ‘Asian scenario’ and save our sea,” the author of the exhibition commented.
The photo exhibition will be open until May 7.
The 42 Environmental Movement is a public association; its activities are aimed at developing environmental civility, protecting the environmental rights and interests of residents of Arkhangelsk Oblast, as well as preserving the natural heritage. The movement describes itself as self-sustainable and independent of political parties, state structures, and business interests.
