Photo by: Anna Kudasheva / Ecodvor
Anyone can start eco-volunteering. The Russian non-profit organisation ECA has a project called “Ecodvor (Ecoyard)”. It is a support and instruction manual for neighbourhood eco-festivals. It indicates how to make arrangements with housing and utilities services, organize separate waste collection, exchange unnecessary things, plant trees and bushes and more.
Such events are very important because they bring together people with similar views and form an eco-community. Then they create groups on social networks and chat rooms on messengers, attract new people and engage in eco-transformation of the courtyard, the neighbourhood and the city.
For example, they organise volunteer rubbish collection, introduce separate waste collection in individual courtyards and housing cooperatives, and regularly organise free fairs for the exchange of unnecessary items (donation fairs).
The association “Separate Collection (Razdelny sbor)” has instructions on how to organise separate waste collection in a block of flats yourself. I know about a hundred people who have used the instructions and have been sorting waste for a long time without any damage to themselves.
Eco-communities can achieve the most effective result with the support of local authorities. There are many difficulties and indifference along the way, but progress is already visible. I have been involved in eco-volunteering for 12 years, and I believe that the Russian eco-community five years ago and now are heaven and earth.
Cover photo: Anna Kudasheva / Ecodvor
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