PILOTING BALTIPLAST PLASTIC WASTE REDUCTION TOOL City news
Since last year, various educational activities have been taking place within the framework of the INTERREG Baltic Sea Region Programme 2021-2027 project "Baltic Approaches to Handling Plastic Pollution under a Circular Economy Context" BALTIPLAST / No.#C021, implemented by Daugavpils City Municipality.
The universities involved in the project with the support of the associations have developed a tool to reduce plastic waste. The tool is aimed at several target groups - municipalities, businesses, schools and households. This year the project is running various pilot actions to test the tool, with the aim of improving it and then offering it to the general public as a way to look at their own plastic consumption habits and find solutions to reduce the amount of plastic waste they generate.
The Development Department, the Urban Planning and Construction Department, the Education Department, as well as several Daugavpils municipal companies - JSC "Daugavpils Siltumtīkli", Ltd. "Daugavpils ūdens", Ltd. "Daugavpils satiksme" and Ltd. "Daugavpils dzīvokļu un komunālās saimimniecības uzņēmums" took part in the piloting campaign. Departments and companies had the opportunity to find out how much plastic waste is generated in their offices and to assess possible behavioral changes with a help of BALTIPLAST expert. During the summer, staff from participating departments and companies had the opportunity to take part in a workshop on the use of plastics in everyday life, sorting and changing habits. It was moderated by Andrejs Zaičenko, BALTIPLAST project expert in the field of plastic pollution reduction in the context of science and education, as well as Edgars Šatilovs, education specialist at Ltd. “AADSO”. It was a great opportunity to look at the topic of waste globally and to ask practical questions about waste sorting in Daugavpils.
Not only representatives of the municipality and its companies took part in the piloting campaign, but also several Daugavpils schools. Pupils from Daugavpils Zinātņu Secondary School and Daugavpils Vienības Primary School tried out a tool for reducing plastic waste developed within the BALTIPLAST project. In cooperation with the project partner, the Baltic Environmental Forum, a non-governmental organisation whose overall aim is to promote the importance of environmental protection by developing cooperation and dialogue between different institutions and interest groups, several activities were organised in these classes. For two weeks, pupils collected plastic waste. Then, together with experts from the Baltic Environmental Forum, they analysed it - both by composition and by discussing possible options for reducing plastic waste. Irina Paegle and Agnese Meija-Toropova from the Baltic Environmental Forum conducted several interactive lessons on environmental and circular economy issues in these classes and trained the students on how to use the tool. The students then chose which actions they would take to use less plastic in their daily lives and repeated the plastic waste collection campaign, after which they analysed the results using the tool developed by BALTIPLAST.
Thank you to the departments and companies, pupils and teachers Oksana Dimitrieva and Oksana Ostrovska for their active involvement in the BALTIPLAST pilot action!
Find out more about the project and follow its activities here.
The project is funded by the European Union INTERREG Baltic Sea Region Programme 2021-2027.
Information prepared by
Division for Investments and International Cooperation of
Development Department
