Translated material
Two funny tanks
The story of Anna Smirnova, who spent five months of her life on the installation of tanks for a separate collection of waste in her LCD
We help a separate collection in the courtyards of St. Petersburg collected 340 529 R required 341 200 rThe collection of funds is over
Anna Smirnova lives in St. Petersburg, in the Kantemirovsky residential complex. She solved the problem of separate waste collection for her entire large house. She herself found a company that is engaged in the removal of waste, and agreed to install containers with the management company. All this time, the girl’s movement “Separate Collection” helped the girl with advice, and later Anna became his employee.
Garbage photo: Maria Ionova-Gribin for TDAt the end of June 2019, 35-year-old Anna Smirnova stood in the middle of one of the basements of garbage on the outskirts of St. Petersburg and, as a spellbound, followed the workers in protective suits and masks, which swarmed over a moving ribbon, grabbing cans, bottles, boxes and something else from her. The garbage trucks were brought by new tons of fragrant cargo, and three thoughts spun in Anna's head at the same time. First: "God, how much we litter!" Second: "Poor workers." And the third: "We need a separate collection."
Anna Photo: Maria Ionova-Gribin for TD“Then I understood this for sure,” Anna recalls. - People work with waste! On the sorting of secondary raw materials too. You also need to think about them, so it is so important to spray recyclables. But the main thing is that if we think about at least some about the environment, you can not do without separate waste collection. If we load all the garbage thoughtlessly, and then the workers are trying to allocate raw materials from waste, then this is virtually impossible: it is very dirty after the garbage truck. As a result, some funny volumes of plastic are gaining at such bases. Literally a ton of garbage was shoveled - and plastic, if compressed, will fit in one box. Such a volume is not interesting to manufacturers, so nothing is moving in this industry. ”
A container for separate garbage collection installed in the courtyard of Anna photo: Maria Ionova-Gribin for TDAnna was based on waste sorting with a tour. The tour was organized by a company that installed and exported tanks for separate garbage collection in a neighboring Anna house. And people from the “Separate Collection” movement helped to sign up for this tour of Anna: she contacted them, thinking about how to establish a separate fee in her house. At the beginning of last year, the Anna family (she, her husband and their little daughter) moved to the Kantemirovsky residential complex. This is a giant complex of eight 25-story houses, “stone jungle”, as Anna herself describes. In the next residential complex, a separate fee was already established, and in these "jungle" - no. And Anna decided to get down to business.
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By that time, Anna had been engaged in environmental activism for many years. Once, in 2008, she studied on exchange in Finland. There she began to sort the waste, and when she returned to Russia - to participate in various environmental actions and subbotniks, to give lectures on ecothematics for schoolchildren and adults.
“I told children and adults about the influence of a person on the environment. Listeners are always divided into two camps: some will stubbornly prove that a person almost does not affect the climate, ecology, and the latter believe that human activity brings the environmental disaster and responsibility lies with each. ”
The problem associated with garbage, every year becomes more acute than the photo: Maria Ionova-Gribin for TDAnna, of course, belongs to the second camp. Her ideas are shared by the family. Parents, although they live in the city, process all the organics for compost for a summer residence, the husband carefully examines the packaging in the supermarket and, having come home from the store, may say: “I didn’t buy cucumbers because they were not sold without a substrate.”
The last ten years in the kitchen of the Smirnovs are four buckets: for plastic, glass, waste paper and unsortable debris. First, the family handed over to various collection points, randomly scattered around the city. Previously, there were single opportunities for this, and in 2013, Anna met a “separate gathering” and began to hand over recyclables on monthly shares (it turned out to be more convenient because it was possible to pass many different factions at once). If the shares were missed, recyclables have been accumulating on the balcony. So it would have continued if Anna had not found out that the neighboring LCD with the installation of tanks somehow coped, but she did not.
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We are talking to Anna on Skype. I was going to go to St. Petersburg, but for well-known reasons I did not go. Anna talks about how five months have passed between July 10, her first visit to the management company (Criminal Code), and, in fact, by installing the tanks in her yard. During these five months, she visited the Criminal Code 11 times, talked with dozens of different organizations, caught Hate from her neighbors, but eventually won.
The amount of garbage is constantly increasing. Landfills quickly grow around the world photo: Maria Ionova-Garbin for TD“First of all, I needed to overcome the internal state“ I can’t solve anything alone, ”my interlocutor recalls. - When I came to the Criminal Code for the first time, I was met with this condescending “again these activists, they do not understand how everyone works and climb.” I had to figure it out to be a “worthy” dialogue. ”
Anna came to a meeting with the manager with a training manual developed by a “separate collection”. It described in detail the answers to the questions that could have arisen by the representative of the Criminal Code. Anna handed the manual, along with the list of containers' procurers, to the manager for familiarization. The training manual was accepted as if favorably, but when Anna came a week later, it turned out that they simply forgot about her. The same thing happened after another week ...
Anna sorts garbage photo: Maria Ionova-Gribin for TDThe girl began to call up the manufacturers (those who collect waste for processing), to find out their working conditions. I found out that the procurers, too, are not eager to work with the Criminal Code, who wants to bring everything to her on a saucer. “This is an interaction, not just a service,” they explained to her. I had to delve into details and ask questions to both parties. Learning the information, she again went to the manager and handed it to him. Later, already in August, she herself decided with which company she would like to cooperate, chose the place where the tanks would be installed. Then she had already agreed that the procurer would come to them and talk with the manager himself.
“As a result, I brought the procurer by the handle, they sat down, talked, found out the conditions. We had such an interesting story: they are sitting opposite each other, talking, and the manager asks: “It will definitely not cost us anything?” The manager replies: “No, we will put it for free, serve for free, it will not cost anything for you”. ”
They agreed, and then the main thing became clear. It turned out that the manager cannot make such decisions, as this is a group of companies.
“At that moment when I realized that the manager did not decide anything, I howled. It seemed that everything needed to start over again, ”recalling those days, Anna and now he was desperate.
Anna sorts garbage photo: Maria Ionova-Gribin for TDThe contract with the procurers, as it turned out, could only conclude the head office, namely the General Director and the Legal Department. This took the time again: the contract was constantly returned to revision - and the girl had to call every now and then to find out at what stage the signing is the document. Then the vacation period began, when one, then the other side was inaccessible. As a result, the contract was signed only in mid -November.
The drive arrived in the yard on November 25. It had two compartments: one for plastic, the other for waste paper. Anna wants to be installed the third, for glass - obviously, this is after quarantine.
“One drive is now standing at the place where the car usually park,” says Anna and comes up with the computer to the window, as if he wants to show me. -That is, the minus of the park. Of course, there were dissatisfied neighbors. "
Anna turned to a “separate gathering” in order to learn more about the processing company photo: Maria Ionova-Gribin for TDAnna says that he really often approaches the window to look at “its” boxes. Suitable, looks out the window and rejoices. Recently, she became an employee of the Separate Collection movement.
“Separate gathering” helps residents of St. Petersburg install tanks in their yards for separate waste collection. Employees conduct consultations for everyone, as well as webinars for Russians from other regions. The movement needs money to pay salaries to employees. Even a small monthly donation will help the movement to continue to work during the crisis. And this is in our interests: the pandemic will pass, the garbage will remain forever.