TCAS: Tacis Cities Award Scheme

Improvement of the waste management system in Kutaisi

April 14, 2008

The project represents the first in Georgia pilot on waste separation. Its overall objective was to reduce the impact of municipal waste on environment and the quality of life of inhabitants of Kutaisi. The specific objective of the project was to reduce the volume of the waste arriving at the landfill through organizing separate collection of recyclable fractions. Two fractions of waste have been selected for separation - paper and plastics. The reason for their selection was abundance of these types of those materials in municipal waste and local availability of relevant recycling enterprises.

65 sites have been selected in the town to install containers (195 in total) for separate collection of waste. Three containers of different color were installed at each site: yellow for paper, blue for plastics and green for the mixed waste. A special vehicle has been purchased to allow city cleaning service to serve the new containers. public inspectors have been hired and trained for each site to look after the waste separation there _ to assist the public, to advise and even to shame, if necessary. Special waistcoats have been designed to equip those inspectors so that people recognize and honor them. For those who wants to earn some small money from collecting paper or plastics special drop-off centers were organized at the sites of recycling enterprises.

To ensure involvement of public in waste separation very intensive awareness raising campaign was carried out. It included:

• biweekly broadcasts through local TV and radio of special programs (6 TV and 12 radio occurrences in total), 4 broadcasts of environmental talk-shows, daily broadcast of an advertising clip on local TV and 2 types of advertising audio-clip on local radio;

•  installing 2 billboards and more than 500 posters in the streets;

• distribution of thematic leaflets, booklets, calendars among population,

• holding educational lessons in all local schools, issuing and distributing special painting workbook for younger children;

• organizing competitions (children’s drawings on environmental themes, “the cleanest yard” competition), opinion poll (“do we want a cleaner city”) and art-from-waste exhibition.

As a result, issues of cleaning of the town and properly managing the waste raised very high on the agenda of both the local authorities of all type and the public. Though changing behavior of the people is difficult and ambitious task and can not be achieved in one year. But the ice broke: people start separating! A very impressive result for the country where no such experience exists!
It is worth noting that the colored waste containers in the streets not only induced waste separation, but also substantially improved collection of usual mixed wastes _ people just like to drop their waste into the nice containers! As a result, garbage in the streets start disappearing, together with street dogs, rats, mice and flies.
Separation and recycling of paper and plastics decreased the waste burden on Kutaisi landfill. To reduce environmental pollution special bulldozer was purchased for recultivation of those parts of the landfill which were already out of use. Wind reduction tree-lines were planted to prevent pollution of the landfill surroundings by the garbage from the landfill.

More importantly, the project presented an impressive and successful example of continuation of cooperation of local authorities with very active and critical local environmental NGO “Spectri”. Couple years ago this NGO implemented a LEAP for Kutaisi, initiated by REC Caucasus. This time it assisted the Municipality in implementing on of LEAP parts. Experts of the Spectri were involved in all awareness raising activities. They delivered 4 training seminars in modern approaches to the waste management for the officials of the municipality.

Despite the overall success, it should be mentioned that the project implementation was not a smooth and easy process. There were several objective reasons for that: local governments in Georgia are quite week and inexperienced. In addition, a month before the start of the project administrative structure of the country changed and a new municipalities established. And what is worse, the project was affected by political changes which resulted in 3 replacements of Kutaisi Mayors during the project.

Lack of experienced staff and frequent changes in both the leadership and the staff of the Municipality resulted in unexpected prolongation of all beurocratic procedures, especially those related with the purchase of equipment. To avoid such difficulties in the future similar projects it would be advisable to include in the project the training of the staff on project implementation technicalities like financial reporting, purchasing procedures, distribution of tasks, time management, etc.

Despite all the difficulties the project met its objectives and deadlines. The most important achievement is the guarantee that the results will sustain. This is guaranteed by the raised awareness of the children, the whole population, the officials; by the benefits both the recycling industries and the Municipality have and by the existence of an active and enthusiastic NGO in the town which will not allow the Municipality to relax… And of course, by the established contacts and habit of cooperation of the NGO and Municipality which is always the key to the success.

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