Eco-solutions: funds for plastic waste directed to help homeless animals in Cherkasy

The Cherkasy "Nova Yakist" management company transferred  UAH 20000 to organizations that care for homeless animals over two years.

Olha Protasenko, deputy director of the company, told about this, writes Suspilne.

What is the problem?

Millions of tons of garbage are thrown away in Ukraine every year, of which, according to various estimates, only 3-6% are recycled.

The parliament is trying to solve this problem with the help of a draft law, which should provide the population with a separate waste collection network and increase the responsibility of product manufacturers.

However, even if the population is provided with containers for sorting garbage, it does not save the situation.

Not all citizens take a responsible approach to waste sorting and use special containers for the wrong purpose.

Every time, workers find garbage from general bins in the nets for plastic.

One of the workers explained that residents deliberately throw bags of biodegradable garbage into plastic containers.

"Our residents throw bags, which should be thrown into the container for collecting solid household waste; they throw them in containers for plastic; sometimes we find clothes, wood waste – people just put the waste [in the wrong continers], and then you can't throw there some plastic bottles," the deputy director of the company Olha Protasenko said.

What is the solution?

As noted, the townspeople collected plastic waste in specially equipped containers to sell it later.

During the two years of operation of the program to help homeless cats and dogs, the company transferred UAH 000 to organizations that care for them. This money helps them a lot, explained the founder of the charitable organization "Dobrokit," Yana Tiabut.

"We have this opportunity to keep cats, rent premises, feed them, treat them, do everything," Yana Tiabut added.

How does it work?

"I just rinse it off […], I close and open it; it's already a habit of mine. And then I just squeeze it – and it's ready just to be thrown in the trash," explains Tetiana Kavalchuk, a resident of Cherkasy.

As reported, she has been sorting garbage for more than five years, so she knows what kind of packaging, where, and how it should be disposed of because she is interested in the final result of recycling.

Tatyana puts the sorted garbage into appropriate containers.

"In Dakhnivka, we put up nets for collecting plastic, and my husband and I regularly take washed, clean, and dry waste for recycling there," emphasizes Kavalchuk.

However, washed, clean, and dry rarely happens, says Anatoliy Obertas, an employee of the "Nova Yakist" management company.

"Potatoes, skins, everything, well, everything is the same containers, where the bottles are," Anatoliy Obertas added.

Clogging the nets leads to a decrease in the value of plastic waste. Therefore, the amount of assistance to animals also decreases.

"Because of other waste thrown in the same containers, the company that accepts plastic is to sort everything through, and this lowers the cost of these recycled bottles," said Olha Protasenko.