Batumi: Georgia’s first city to embrace recycling

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.