19 September 2022, KARAGANDA/TEMIRTAU – On September 17, there were mass cleanup events all over the planet associated with World Cleanliness Day. Kazakhstanis also joined the international action. Local NGOs and CSOs organized various environmental events in Karaganda, Temirtau, Almaty, Astana, Aktau, Turkestan, Shymkent, Petropavlovsk, and other cities.
The citizens of Karaganda cleaned the city's pine forest plantation, which is a place trendy among the city’s inhabitants. People come here all year round to relax and breathe the fresh air. Not only that, people made sure to take their garbage with them. Furthermore, they were not shy about cleaning up the trash left by less responsible Karaganda citizens. Unfortunately, much hard-to-clean waste remained even after such a mass voluntary action – for example, snacks and candy bar packaging, cigarette packages, and many used tissues.
So the problem was not easy - we had to clean the meadows covered with a carpet of garbage. One hundred people of different ages and occupations joined forces to make their country cleaner and better! The volunteers filled more than forty bags with waste. Isn’t it a lot?
People in Temirtau cleaned up the bank of the Nura river during World Cleanup Day. Unlike the coastal area of the Samarkand Reservoir, the Nura River is not subject to the usual voluntary actions. So you can find a lot of trash there during the summer season. Seventy people, including the mayor and his colleagues, responded to help clean it. They collected about two hundred bags of garbage! Waste that can be recycled was collected separately and handed over to specialized organizations. The rest was sent to a landfill. The event ended with a picnic and songs.
Additional Information:
- Irina Ignatovich, EcoMuseum, Karaganda, +7 705759 99 09,
- Dana Zakarina, UPRiRP, Karaganda, +7 701 226 5623
- Elena Varganova, Temirtau, +7 701 679 0671.
Notes:
[1] Organizers of the action in Karaganda and Temirtau:
- Akimat of Karaganda region,
- Karaganda Oblast Department of Natural Resources and Nature Management Regulation Project “Divide, surrender, recycle!”,
- Department of Ecology of Karaganda region,
- The European Union project in Kazakhstan “Our response to Climate Change” implemented by Karaganda Regional Environmental Museum and NGO “Arnika” (Czech Republic),
- Public Association “Reflection” (Temirtau).
[2] The company “Vtorosyrye Karaganda” (@vsk.karaganda), which traditionally organized the removal of waste and its further recycling, also supported the event in Karaganda. The American Corner of Karaganda (@american_corner_karaganda @usinkz), and the eco-quiz provided special prizes for the eco-quiz and Natige (@natige_milk) offered participants to replenish themselves and taste their delicious cheese and yogurt.
[3] “World Cleanup Day” is the most significant international public action, which unites millions of volunteers to clean their yards, cities, villages, steppes, forests, rivers, and the sea from litter. The event originated in Estonia in 2008, when the movement “Let’s Do it!” and 50,000 volunteers cleaned up the country of 10,000 tons of trash in five hours. Monitoring carried out several years later showed that after the mass cleanup, the pollution of territories decreased by 75%! This tremendous positive example inspired other countries. The campaign has become an international event held regularly every third Saturday in September. Participants register on the global portal (https://www.worldcleanupday.org/). More than 50 million people have taken part in the action over the years. In 2022 more than 240 countries participated in the cleanup.
