Voluntary clean-up event held in Jety-Oguz villages with support of Kumtor Gold Company

Voluntary clean-up event held in Jety-Oguz villages with support of Kumtor Gold Company

published: 28 March 2018

A group of employees of Kumtor Gold Company, residents of Tamga and Tosor communities as well as representatives of the municipal company “Ishterman” carried out a volunteer clean-up event on March 24, 2018. The total area thus cleaned was over 3.5 sq. kilometers.

Participating in the event were 200 people divided into several groups. Some were assigned to deal with plastic, others with glass and some others with unrecyclable waste. With the support of local authorities, the waste was sorted out before it was brought to collection centers opened under the Green Point project sponsored by Kumtor Company. All the recyclable material thus collected will be sent to a factory in Bishkek. The funds raised are expected to be used by Green Point activists to purchase bags and gloves which will be donated to local authorities for carrying out further events.

Volunteer clean-up events like this are held by Kumtor Gold Company on a regular basis. Remarkably, more and more local residents are seen each year to take part in these events. They note the importance of clean-up events both in terms of developing tourism and the entire region.
“It’s not so difficult to take along litter after having a picnic. It takes plastic more than one hundred years to decompose, while our children have no other place to live but this. A clean place is not where litter is removed but, rather where people don’t litter,” says Oleg Alakionov, shift supervisor, security, Kumtor.

Keepsakes like thermomugs, backpacks, pens, notebooks and eco-bags were given on behalf of Kumtor Gold Company to the most active participants in the clean-up event. The notebook paper is made of recycled waste paper. The prizes will remind the village residents of how important it is to assume a responsible approach to resource use.
“Reusable cotton bags should become an alternative to disposable plastic bags and are thought to reduce the latter’s use. Hopefully, next time that you will go shopping, you will choose to take an eco-bag instead of an ordinary plastic one which it takes hundreds of years to decompose completely. I call on all residents to bring recyclable waste to our collection centers,” said Dmitry Andreyev, coordinator, Green Point.