From the ECOTIC CARAVAN to the RECYCLING STATION. Plus a new project for CLEAN CITIES.
For a clean environment, all the states of the world have to overcome various difficulties, the process being complex and long-distance.
From the awareness and identification of solutions to the necessary implementation mechanisms and infrastructures, the challenges still remain or return with new questions - keeping pace with the evolution of more and more modern society.
For a clean environment, man must keep pace with himself: with his evolution and dynamics, with his own "cravings" and consumption habits.
Every individual, no matter who he is, has a Ecological footprint - an impact on the environment. Every household, no matter who it is, produces waste every day.
From paper / cardboard / glass / food / textiles / wood to electrical and electronic equipment, batteries and accumulators, people bring into their households all the comfort that, once exhausted, can become the discomfort of the environment. Not if the process is circular - “released” waste, becoming resources for new productions. And for recycling to work, people have to select.
Active for 10 years for a clean environment, ECOTIC has known that when people understand these things, their demands increase - firstly from them, secondly from the authorities.
Two years ago, ECOTIC knew it was time for a project to raise awareness amongst people and give them support to set the change in motion. This is how the “ECOTIC Caravan” appeared, a project co-financed by the European Commission by LIFE + program.
In 2014, the Caravan began a two-year journey across the country - visiting more than 30 counties, parking in the yards of more than 200 schools, inspiring and involving more than 85.000 students plus teachers and supporting local campaigns for residents of each county visited - both in urban and rural areas.
In a caravan carrying the mobile display of electrical and electronics (so that you can see with your own eyes how many layers and pieces the appliances can be broken down to be reused or recycled), people realized that some materials are toxic, that most can be reused and that everything that escapes into the environment leaves traces.
Then, the same Caravan collected all the WEEE and DBAs that the locals understood that they should not abandon at the landfill, but send them for recycling.
Thus, the percentage of actual collection also increased (organically) with the degree of awareness - both with the help of students, through the educational institutions that entered the Campaign "ECO days in your school", As well as with the help of locals who want villages, communes and clean cities, joining the campaign"Recycling Days in your City!".
At the end of the road, Caravana announced on June 2, 2016 in Bucharest (during the closing event of the project) that it does not let the engine cool down, continuing on the right path.
People remained active behind the Caravan, asking for support for selective collection and waiting for the Caravan to return for a new wave of "general cleaning".
People still want the Caravan in their cities and villages, they even want collection centers as well WCIC - a premiere in Romania. People want and have started to do what they can - because that's what they needed: to understand that they have the power to protect their environment.
Thus, the ECOTIC Caravan on June 14 already it reached Iasi County, leading the “RECYCLING STATION” in rural areas - for cleaner villages and communes throughout the country.
Moreover, part of the collection's mission continues in the urban environment, because people want "CLEAN TOWNS" - a campaign carried out in parallel with that of the RECYCLING STATION, but, this time, is not supported by the Caravan new local partners, which ensure the takeover of WEEE and DBAs!
What did the information and the call to action lead to? In collaboration! People, authorities and NGOs work together for a clean environment. And the new good road has just begun! The first on the list of CLEAN CITIES is Botosani, and the first county visited by the RECYCLING STATION is Iaşi.
This material is about people, about citizens, about what they can do and what they can ask for - about their power! But many other actors play important roles for a clean environment, and this discussion is carried on in the series of articles "WELCOME CHANGE!", dedicated to the concept of "Circular Economy".