Batumi: Georgia’s first city to embrace recycling
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Georgia’s coastal city Batumi is the country’s first area to implement a recycling strategy in a bid to reduce pollution.
More than 100 recycling bins separating glass, paper and plastic have been installed on the Black Sea coastal boulevard as a way to better manage the city’s ecological environment and reduce pollution.
Batumi Boulevard Administration deputy director Giorgi Varshanidze said even though Georgia did not have a specific waste recycling system, city officials had installed several recycling bins as a way to encourage locals to better discard of their rubbish and make recycling a habit.
"To solve [our] garbage problem, it must start from something and by someone. We are like innovators [in this sense] so let’s see what will happen. This won’t completely solve our rubbish problem but we want to change people’s attitude toward waste management,” he said.
On another note, Batumi City Hall recently installed about six sidewalk rubbish bins (with large underground waste containers) along one street of the city.
Six new underground waste containers were installed in coastal city Batumi. Photo by Netgazeti.ge
Photos appeared on the Internet last week detailing the city’s moves to better manage its rubbish. This type of waste sorting system was new for the Georgian population.
A City Hall representative said the new underground waste containers were in a trial phase, with the overall aim of reducing pollution in the city, particularly in summer as it was a popular tourism destination.
The spokesperson said if the trial program was effective, more of these new recycling bins will replace old metal boxes.
On January 15 Georgia introduced a new Waste Management Code, which provided the country with a modern waste management approach that aligned with European standards.
Georgia’s Minister of Environment and Natural Resources Elguja Khokrishvili believed the law change was important in terms of the Association Agreement, which Georgia signed with the European Union (EU) last year.
The draft law was developed under the EU-funded waste management twinning project named ‘Capacity building of the Ministry of Environment to develop and improve the waste management system in Georgia’, and carried out by the Austrian-Bulgarian Association.
Austrian, Bulgarian and German experts teamed up with local experts to prepare the Waste Management Code.
People who throw litter from cars and other vehicles face fines of up to 120 GEL ($63 USD) under new law aimed at curbing roadside rubbish.
Georgia is taking a tougher stance on environmental pollution and is launching a campaign to raise awareness and encourage waste management.
A waste processing factory is planned to be constructed in Tbilisi. The project, initiated by Tbilisi City Hall, has already been approved by the Economic Council, which was led by Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili.
Hundreds of thousands of Georgian residents will be able to dump their rubbish in a more modern landfill funded by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
Those who purposely litter or pollute the environment will be slapped with huge fines, announced Georgia’s Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili at today’s Governmental meeting.
Come to Batumi and be part of the seaside city’s first summer campaign where there is fun going down all day, every day.
Georgia’s capital city Tbilisi is ‘going green’ and will soon become an ecologically clean city with healthy and attractive environments, pledged Tbilisi City Hall.
A section of coastline in Georgia’s Black Sea town Batumi where erosion is threatening beachfront, roadways, bicycle lanes and buildings will be soon be corrected and restored.
The Georgian capital of Tbilisi will soon have an ecologically safe waste processing factory relevant to the European standards.
A memorandum was signed between Tbilisi City Hall and the KDV Georgia company that won the tender last year.
Georgia’s capital of Tbilisi will implement a recycling strategy in a bid to reduce pollution, Tbilisi City hall has announced. The strategy will be created in cooperation with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
80 recycling bins for glass, paper and plastic were installed on Rustaveli Avenue, Tbilisi last night. Old litter bins were removed from the street.
The Georgian Black Sea town of Batumi has been covered by snow overnight, while the Georgian capital of Tbilisi was struggling with heavy wind. Photos of snowy Batumi have gone viral on Facebook and other social networks with lots of locals and visitors sharing photos and videos of the town.
A group of volunteers supported by state agencies and private enterprise descended on a section of western Georgia's Black Sea coast last weekend to successfully complete what has been called the "largest ever" cleanup effort of the coastline.