When I first came to Georgia, I was overwhelmed by the trash, everywhere, or so it seemed. I think I didn't realize how nice it is in the US now, where it is really socially unacceptable to throw things out the car window, etc. You can't just pick it trash here and dispose of it when you go for a walk, because you wouldn't get far. Along main roads it is the worst. The Georgian government pays people to clean up, but each assignment has boundaries, so there is still a lot of trash around. Plastic, of course in particular, accumulates and will just sit there for decades, until a really hungry dog, bird, or chicken decides it looks appetizing ( yes, I've seen chickens eat plastic bags.)
This plastic waste is not just here in Georgia. According to a new Ellen MacArthur Foundation
report
launched at the World Economic Forum at Davos every year “at least 8million tons of plastics leak into the ocean – which is equivalent to dumping the
contents of one garbage truck into the ocean every minute. If no action is
taken, this is expected to increase to two per minute by 2030 and four per
minute by 2050. “In a business-as-usual scenario, the ocean is expected to
contain one ton of plastic for every three tonnes of fish by 2025, and by
2050, more plastics than fish [by weight].”
The Guardian summarized the report in an article last month.
Yes Georgia
has a lot of waste, but they also have some creative recycle applications that
I thought you might to see. Yes, necessity is
the mother of invention. But we still all need to work on it.
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This bottle was tied to the bottom
of a underground passageway in Tbilisi.
I loved the concept. But who empties it? |
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I bought my honey from a guest house,
in this coke bottle. |
More recycling in the village. If I want milk, we hang a used plastic bottle from the fence post. The neighbor fills it after milking, and gives them to a downstairs neighbor, who lets me know she has it, when I come home after work.
Also, if you want saklis gvino ( house wine) from a shop, you have to bring your own plastic bottle. NOTE: They tell you to squeeze the plastic bottle, so there is no air in it, and the wine won't go bad. We believe the same thing back home, but it's more expensive with adapters for glass bottles.
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I bought this from the shop in this recycled Fanta bottle.
They don't need fancy new containers.
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Gas and electric bills are posted here.
We have no postal service.
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Our bills hang from a recycled bottle in the entrance of
my stairwell. If I forget to notice and pick it up to pay,
the neighbors remind me. :-)
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If you buy yogurt, you have to bring a replacement glass bottle to swap for the one you buy, or they won't sell you any. :-) Not the best marketing approach, but then, this isn't the US. They have different priorities for sales goals.
Let's hope we continue to focus on these problems - for us, our kids, our grandkids...
The opera house was damaged during the Soviet breakup, and reopened in the 1990s. Tickets were priced very low, citing the fact that in those years in Georgia theatre was more of a necessity than a luxury. The house was then closed for 6 years, for a multimillion-pound refit paid for by the country’s richest man and former prime minister, Bidzina Ivanishvili. It was spectacular. Here are a few pictures of the renovations. Even the bathrooms were amazing, although I held off taking pictures of the massive entrance, mirrors, and beautiful decorations. 
