On 17 September, the Delegation of the European Union and the Embassy of Estonia joined the clean-up campaign of the Karasu River in Astana on the eve of the World Clean-up Day as part of the EU Climate Diplomacy activities and #EUBeachCleanup campaign.The “Association of Ecologists” together with the Ministry of Ecology, Geology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the ALE “Coalition for the Green Economy and the Development of G-Global”, the Environmental Movement “We are for a Clean Country” and the organisation “Zhasyl Qalqan” are leading the World Clean-up Day 2022 campaign in Kazakhstan this year.The clean-up gathered around 100 volunteers – Kazakh activists and diplomats – in Astana, who collected plastic waste along the Karasu river banks. The local authorities provided all the necessary equipment and made sure the waste was segregated at once to facilitate further processing of garbage.
Thanking everyone who joined, the EU Ambassador Kestutis Jankauskas underlined the importance of Kazakhstan being part of this worldwide activity which unites us all in fighting pollution: “World Clean-up Day not only helps to make our nature cleaner, but draws attention to growing problems of environmental pollution with plastic. Let’s collect the garbage, let’s leave nature as clean as we want to find it, let’s segregate garbage and recycle it if we want to drink clean water and to breathe clean air, in order to preserve our world for future generations. European Union is ready to share with Kazakhstan its best technologies of recycling and circular economy. Let’s keep Kazakhstan clean!”
Estonian Ambassador Toomas Tirs spoke about the history of World Cleanup Day and noted the importance of participating in this event: “World Cleanup Day is one of the largest civic movements of our time, uniting 180 countries in the fight for a clean planet. This world-changing idea was born in little Estonia in 2008. 50,000 people banded together to clean up the entire country in just five hours. This is an elaborate exercise on garbage blindness. Everyone’s participation is important! Thank you! Kop Rakhmet! We did a good job!”
