"Green Weekend", results

This weekend, October 1-2, Green Weekend took place across the country. Greenpeace volunteers collected garbage for recycling, and Moscow activists organized an entertainment and educational eco-festival at the Flacon design plant.

The weekend really turned out to be “green”: residents of 11 participating cities (2.5 thousand people) collected more than 30 tons of recyclable materials. Lipetsk turned out to be the record holder: schoolchildren recycled as many as 20 tons of textbooks!

The most willing people to donate were, of course, waste paper, plastic and glass. In some cities - Pyatigorsk, Vladivostok and Podolsk - metal was also accepted, and in St. Petersburg and Moscow it was possible to get rid of hazardous waste: energy-saving lamps and old electronics.

In each city, the weekend was held in its own way: in Ivanteevka and Podolsk, a cleanup was held and parks were cleared of garbage, and in Vladivostok, a small forest area was held. In Irkutsk, volunteers and activists of the “Baikal Ecological Wave” accepted recyclable materials in their office. In addition to what Irkutsk residents brought for recycling, a “parcel” of plastic, aluminum and glass arrived from Olkhon Island, where activists from the village of Khuzhir had collected recyclables a week earlier. And in Syktyvkar, 3.5 tons of waste paper were collected by students from 14 schools. In Kalach-on-Don, for two days, people brought waste paper and plastic from all over the city to mobile points organized by Eco-Don volunteers, and in exchange for recyclable materials, they were treated to sweets.

In Moscow, over the weekend of October 1-2, about 1,500 people gave “second life” to things. On Sunday, a real festival was organized at the Flacon design factory! With competitions, master classes, lotteries, prizes and gifts. You could learn how to make scented soap with your own hands, paper beads, designer postcards from old magazines, listen to how to choose safe household chemicals, exchange books you’ve read a long time ago, and even play a mini-quest.

There are record holders among the guests of the Green weekend, who handed over 212 kg of waste paper and 9 large bags of plastic bottles!

“Green weekend” once again proved that people in many cities are ready to take care of the planet’s resources, separately collect and recycle waste, says Alexey Kiselev, head of the toxic program of Greenpeace Russia. “Unfortunately, the authorities think much worse about people. That is why a separate waste collection system has not yet been organized. Officials believe it will take decades for people to get used to it. Obviously, this idea has taken such hold of those in power that, for example, in Moscow, contrary to the mayor’s promises, they again revived the project for the construction of waste incineration plant No. 1 on Vagonoremontnaya Street...”

(Photo by Veronica Komarova)