Submitted by Saba Iakobidze, Regional Ambassador in Georgia of the 22nd Eco-generation Program

Tbilisi, Georgia

Waste segregation and recycling is the most important part of protecting our world from pollution, but we know that one country isn’t enough and only whole human population can stop our environmental problems; we all know we should jointly strive to changes in order to save our planet.

Humanity is standing at risk of destroying earth, our only habitat for now. Countries are focused on waste segregating, in order to make waste more reusable and to recycle it.

Waste segregation is crucial because of many reasons, for example: recycling paper and cardboard reduces deforestation, it is fact that to get little amount of high-quality paper several trees are cut down, so waste segregation and recycling saves trees from being cut down, also it protects wildlife, ecosystem and microclimates by reducing amount of raw materials that we need for production. Waste segregation and recycling reduces sizes of landfills, as there is less waste. And, segregation and recycling is far cheaper than disposal and collection of waste[1].

Talking about Georgia we should mention that there are 3 newly open and 53 old operating landfills, the most of them are opened since the Soviet Union, from which about 30 can be rehabilitated and brought to EU compliant operation, the remaining 20 requires proper close out, which will approximately cost 170 million USD dollars. Currently, these landfill poses high risk to our environment and local population living in surroundings.[2]

Georgia still has not any effective recycling systems, many say it’s because there is no legislation about plastic, paper or cardboard, glass and rubber tires. But this is not a problem, Georgian government has not any legislation on scrap metal either, but it has become third largest export for Georgia, one way in which Georgian government could devise effective recycling system, trough packaging, but here we are facing against one big problem, country is importing from turkey and Ukraine, even though conditions in Georgia allow to create packaging 20% cheaper, thus allowing government to promote recycling within households. There currently are some factories that recycle its own raw materials like on PET factory in Rustavi which recycles its own material, which cuts electricity taxes and gives them financial benefit, this factory is not alone, several factories in Georgia also recycle. There are opportunities for other types of recyclable waste that can be segregated, which will avoid further damage of our environment and also, will benefit financial growth of our region.[3]

Georgian government commenced implementation of waste segregation strategy in Tbilisi, which also includes reusing and recycling of waste types which can be segregated. The new initiates are heavily supported by EBRD, USAID and local NGO’s, it will also be implemented in other parts of country in order to reduce waste and promote waste segregation. There are also planned to come in force new legislative changes including future responsibilities putting on manufacturers and distributors of products. It is great to have joint efforts from the government and different international and local organizations which is helping us implementing changes quicker and moving towards more sustainable future.^[4]       

Supporting photo[5]