SOCIETY

Here’s Why You Should Say No to Plastic (and How)

BLOG BY KATIE RUTH DAVIES

Plastic pollution has become one of the most serious environmental issues, with demand for and production of disposable plastic products already overwhelming the world’s ability to deal with them.

Naturally, this represents a huge threat to the environment. Millions of animals are killed by plastics every year- in most cases by mistaking plastic for food. Rivers and coastlines are choked with plastic left-overs, and landfi lls have become packed with plastics that will take 400 years and upwards to disappear, if they will at all.

In the West, the above tends to be common knowledge, though in many cases it has taken a concerted effort from the governments through clean-up and education programs, along with varying forms of punishment, among them fi nes, to bring citizens and businesses into line with regards to sensible waste management and proper recycling. Not to mention huge sums of money invested in recycling facilities and collection.

Georgia has been a country slow to catch up with the West in terms of environmental awareness, with many, in urban as well as rural settlements, still careless with their waste, and local governments lacking the adequate resources to improve the situation.

According to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), around 900,000 tons of waste is generated annually in Georgia, and more than 75% ends up in landfi lls, increasing pollution and posing long-lasting threats to the environment and human health. Georgia’s National Waste Management Strategy for 2016-2030 provides a target timeline for recycling certain types of waste. For example, the country should be recycling 50% of plastic waste by 2025 and 80% by 2030.

Education programs in schools on the issues of eco-care and sustainable waste management are still in their infancy, but are developing, and campaigns and competitions run by various organizations, most prominent among them CENN, empower Georgia’s youth to discover more, to compete in awarenessraising in their communities, and to organize local clean-up events.

My own children were inspired by one such campaign last year and, stuck in lockdown, I was happy to make it a family project. Our job: to create posters promoting environment protection. We were among 160 families and school teams countrywide to participate.

We’re a reasonably eco-conscious family. We’re vegetarian, don’t own a car, switch the lights off behind us, turn the tap off while brushing our teeth, use long-life bags when shopping, try to choose products with minimum packaging or made of recyclable/easily degradable materials, and recycle our bottles and caps when we can. We’ve also been on litter-picks with school, kindergarten and various groups of locals and expats. But I know that what we do is not enough by far, and I always aim to do more, where possible.

My eldest daughter Lily, 10 at the time, had her eyes opened as wide as mine when we started the poster-making project last year.

“I worked on this ‘Keep Georgia Tidy’ project with my sister Dali (8), my brother Toran (6) and my mum Katie,” she says. “We talked together about what effect people have on the environment, and we watched some YouTube videos about it. We came up with three main problems:

“During the coronavirus pandemic, a lot of people have been dropping their used gloves or masks in the street instead of putting them in the bin. These then damage our nature and are dangerous to us and animals. People should put non-recyclable things carefully in the bin and recyclable things in a recycle bin to keep our streets and nature tidy!

“Per day, around the world, people throw away 60 million plastic bottles. One bottle takes 450 years to decompose. We looked into ways we could reuse bottles instead of throwing them away. With a clean, empty bottle, you can make a pencilcase, a piggy bank, a fl ower pot, toys like planes and cars, or cute shades for fairylights,” Lily notes.

“People buy and throw away too many clothes- 13 million tons per year go to waste! We looked for ways we could reuse our old clothes (apart from giving them to the needy). You can make a hat, new pockets or patches for your jeans, a pencilcase, a bag, or even cushion covers!

“We worked on our posters as a team, as a family, and all the posters were made from recycled materials,” Lily says. “I think it’s very important that we look after the environment and make new things out of old things, and that we all keep our Georgia tidy!” she added.

One of the winners included 11-year old Mariam Bedia, who was chosen for her and her mother’s inventive reusing of plastic bottles- with everything from colorful fl ower pots and ornaments, to beautiful bags.

“If we don’t reduce waste, nothing else matters,” she said.

And I couldn’t have agreed more. In fact, what I learned about plastic waste alone was enough to shock and sadden me (see the “shock box” below), making me more determined than ever, starting from my own family, to minimize our use of plastic even further- more than anything by choosing not to buy plastic, by reusing the plastic we have purchased, by upcycling like Mariam (turning a plastic object into something else that is just as useful) and, as a last resort, by recycling – in this way setting an example for others to follow. Check out some of the things I’ve changed in my life, and see if you get inspired too.

HOW TO REDUCE PLASTIC IN YOUR LIFE

Start by taking a visit to shop ‘Zero Effect’ in Tbilisi. There, you’ll fi ne bamboo toothbrushes and cutlery, wooden-handled razors, cloth bags, wooden hair brushes and combs, and numerous other daily items you have at home but in plastic. By switching to wood and fabric, and rejecting plastic, you’re making an impact on what goes into landfi lls or the sea. Use hand-made soap and shampoo bars instead of buying plastic one-use bottles. In Tbilisi, head to the craft fairs often held near Freedom (Liberty) Square, in Orbeliani Square, and in Deda Ena Park, where you’ll fi nd a selection of highly recommended, organic and beautifully presented soaps and shampoos. Also check out the online options Soap. ge, Zero Effect, and SapovnelaNatural. For ladies – look into getting a menstrual cup (sometimes known as a “MoonCup”) rather than using tampons and towels. Although they take a bit of getting used to, they last years, save money, and reduce the risks of infection when used correctly. And, of course, they prevent your next trip to the sea being

spoiled by unsightly waste washing up on the sand next to you!

For tea-drinkers – buy loose tea rather than tea bags. Several tea bag brands use polypropylene, a sealing plastic, to keep their tea bags from falling apart. This plastic is not recyclable or biodegradable. So, even when you put all your used tea bags in the food waste or compost heap, it can lead to plastic pollution, as not all of it will be broken down.

For soda-lovers – even cans of fi zzy drinks contain plastic, so choose glass bottles. The taste is generally better, and you can make use of the bottles, as many Georgians do, for your next batch of Tkemali (that famed plum sauce)!

Donate your clean bottle caps to Tbilisi’s ‘Precious Plastic Georgia’, who melt the plastic down to make practical and beautiful furniture and artwork. Kiwi Vegan Café (6 Machabeli Street) is one collection point, but you can contact PPG on Facebook for more information. For outdoors-lovers – As Lily said, worldwide, we humans are throwing away around 60 million plastic bottles a day. Do your part to reduce this number by switching to a long-life bottle that you can fi ll with water, wash, and refi ll over and over again.

For shoppers – The average time a polyethylene bag is used is only 12 minutes. Yet, they can take up to 1000 years to decompose in nature, and, as any traveler will know, there are a lot of them in Georgian nature! Invest in some lifelong shopping bags made of fabric or sturdy plastic fi bers, and keep them in the back of the car or hung near your door so you remember to take them on every shopping trip.

For those on a night out with friends,

or ordering a fast-food lunch – Say “no” to drinking straws, and an even stronger “no” to plastic lids on your paper cups. Nearly 7.5 million plastic straws were found on US shorelines during a fi ve-year cleanup research project recently. Globally, that would be up to 8.3 billion plastic straws on the world’s coastlines. Yet, currently, plastic straws make up about 99% of the $3 billion global drinking-straw market. Think about it next time you order a drink – you really don’t need that straw, do you? For those feeling crafty – Get online for fun ways to reuse your plastic trash. There is no end to the useful and decorative items you can make with a bit of inspiration!

Good luck on your plastic reduction mission. And remember, every little helps, but you should always aim bigger!

SHOCKING FACTS ABOUT PLASTIC*

• More than 5 trillion pieces of plastic are already fl oating in our oceans. Check out the ‘Plastic Soup Foundation’ for more info. • Worldwide, 73% of beach litter is plastic: fi lters from cigarette butts, bottles, bottle caps, food wrappers, grocery bags, and polystyrene containers. • World plastic production has increased exponentially from 2.1 million tons in 1950 to 147 million in 1993 to 406 million in 2015. • Only 9% of plastics are recycled. It has remained at 9% since 2012 in spite of increased recycling efforts and education. • By 2050, virtually every seabird species on the planet will be eating plastic. • As of 2015, more than 6.3 billion tons of plastic waste had been generated. Around 9% of that was recycled, 12% was incinerated, and 79% accumulated in landfi lls or the environment. • Around the world, nearly a million plastic beverage bottles are sold every minute. Estimates for how long plastic lasts range from 450 years to forever. • The largest market for plastics today is packaging materials. That rubbish now accounts for nearly half of all plastic waste generated globally – most of it never gets recycled or incinerated. • More than 40% of plastic is used just once, then thrown away. • Nearly 700 species, including endangered ones, are known to have been affected by plastics. Plastics are consumed by land-based animals, including elephants, zebras, tigers, cattle and other large mammals, in some cases causing death.

Legend of the Grandparents, Conclusion

BLOG BY TONY HANMER

Last week I began this fable about how Babua and Bebia, two prominent rock features of Mt. Ushba, came to be. The couple are now about to be acknowledged by the Mountain.

“WHOOOO ARE YOUUUU!” came the roar, nearly deafening them and leaving them with little breath by which to reply. The very stones now joined the tornado, whirling around in mockery of both Bebia’s earlier dance and Babua’s slingshot tantrum. They clung to each other in terror, nearly fl at on the ground, desperate not to leave it and be dashed to smithereens against the wall of Ushba’s face.

“You know us; we’ve lived in your shadow all our lives!” Bebia screamed as a momentary lull came. “We’ve always revered you and exalted the One who made you! But we are old now and don’t have the strength to shout like this! Can we just talk a bit more quietly please!”

At that, the whirlwind began to dissipate, bit by bit; the rocks fl ew out of their mad orbits, and in a few minutes there was blessed silence again, stars and moon in a cold night. It seemed that Ushba was, at least for now, willing to accede to polite requests.

Then came a puff of breath this time, quiet enough that the old couple had to strain to hear it at all. “Why are you here; what effrontery brings you up to my face to insult me...?” it wheezed. They hoped they had heard right.

“Well… we know that you are so old that no one remembers when or how you came to be; many times, many of our small lifetimes,” Babua whispered back. “Forgive us for getting out of hand in our attempts to converse with you. But we are reaching the end of our walk on earth, and we don’t know what will happen to our love for each other and to our family when we are gone. What is the secret to your great age, and how might we share in it to live longer, please?”

Silence for a while: perhaps only a heartbeat on the scale of the Mountain, but many long minutes for Babua and Bebia, enduring while they shivered, now on their feet again but still clinging to each other, not daring to speak unbidden and risk more fury.

PART IV: THE PRECIPICE

“Whhhh… hoooo… You don’t know what you are asking. Everything has its allotted span of minutes or decades or millennia…” came the tiny voice again; they held their breaths to hear it.

“Youuuu… can only change this by becoming something which your people have never been before: my servants and ambassadors to the world.

“Iffff you choose this destiny, you will live as long as I will, but you will also be transformed.

“Howwwwever, you cannot keep both your famous love for each other and your headship of your family.

“Youuuu must choose one or the other.

“Which will it beeee…?”

“But… you have two peaks, why can’t we have both of these choices instead of just one? That isn’t fair!” Bebia said.

“One of my peaks is higher than the other, thoughhhh. And ultimately, I am only one mountain.”

Babua and Bebia together realized that their children and children’s children must eventually lead their own families; the two of them must give way to these upcoming generations, full of energy and strength. And what would it be to lead them all forever anyway, if their mutual love was not part of it, example and inspiration? As one, knowing that they stood before a cliff of decision as real as the rock one at their feet, they said:

“We choose our love to be the higher peak.”

“There is no going back from thissss. Are youuuu suuuure…?” demanded the Mountain. The very stars held their breath.

This time their answers were not the same. Babua responded fi rst: simply, “Yes.” Bebia, however, with her mother’s and grandmother’s heart beating wildly, turned and took a few steps away from him to consider the thing alone. Their new role was to represent Ushba to all who came to see him. But their love would remain as long as the Mountain did. And also, somehow, so would their lives, though changed perhaps beyond knowing.

“My love!” he called out to her. She turned back, to see him fi xed to the ground, unable to move his feet. But there was no fear in his voice: only the certainty of what they meant to each other, regardless of what else would alter around them.

Fixing her gaze upon him, Bebia also said, “Yes.” To both Babua and their new master. Her feet, too, became locked in place, a sheath of rock growing up to encase her as it was doing with her husband. They became one with the foundation now covering them and wholly preserving their features. Their expressions of this devotion became immutable.

PART V: THE PRONOUNCEMENT

Ushba sighed a last breath and looked down at his handiwork.

“It is good,” he thought in the night stillness. “These miniscule lives still contain much which is unknown to me: their love is vaster than all my stature. I will study them for the rest of my long life, as they gaze each upon the other, and learn from them even as they show me to the world: my human face.”

Tony Hanmer has lived in Georgia since 1999, in Svaneti since 2007, and been a weekly writer and photographer for GT since early 2011. He runs the “Svaneti Renaissance” Facebook group, now with nearly 2000 members, at www.facebook.com/ groups/SvanetiRenaissance/ He and his wife also run their own guest house in Etseri: www.facebook.com/hanmer.house.svaneti

Changing Waste Management Practices in Georgian Cities

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) signed memorandums of understanding with the Batumi and Tbilisi municipalities, to assist the two largest Georgian cities to introduce plastic waste separation practices and promote sustainable lifestyles.

Through its Accelerator Lab, UNDP will study household waste behaviour to fi nd out what measures would stimulate people to separate waste, and how municipal authorities could support this process.

UNDP’s behavioural experiment will reveal whether adequate infrastructure and public awareness has a notable impact on waste management practices. Up to 40 separation bins for plastic waste will be installed in several districts of both cities. In the pilot districts, UNDP will organize an educational campaign to inform people about the environmental and other benefi ts of waste sorting, while in the other districts, no additional information will be provided to the residents. Changes in household waste behavior will be compared in both groups to measure the effectiveness of public awareness activities.

The $34,000 project will be implemented from September through December 2021 in close partnership with the Batumi and Tbilisi municipalities, and in cooperation with Sandasuptaveba Ltd in Batumi and Tbilservicegroup Ltd in Tbilisi.

“Georgia’s fastest-growing cities, Tbilisi and Batumi, are struggling with a waste management issue. Separation is the fi rst critical step towards a circular economy that benefi ts people and the environment,” said UNDP Deputy Head Anna Chernyshova. “Understanding household behavior will help reveal decisive factors to change a widespread social practice and promote waste sorting through effective policies and other mechanisms.”

Around 900,000 tons of waste is generated annually in Georgia and more than 75% ends up in landfi ll sites, increasing pollution and posing long-lasting threats to the environment and human health. Georgia’s National Waste Management Strategy for 2016-2030 provides a target timeline for recycling certain types of waste. For example, the country should be recycling 50% of plastic waste by 2025 and 80% by 2030. To fulfi l this ambitious goal, Georgia must implement a complex set of measures to prevent excessive waste generation and stimulate the transition to sustainable waste management.