Keep Georgia Tidy

The implementation of “Keep Georgia Tidy” project is going according to the plan. It is first reporting year of activities of KGT and its local partner organizations GSNE Orchis and GMG/FOE of Georgia. Some key achievements during the first-year reporting period include the following: KGT successfully achieved the outcome 1.5. Keep Georgia Tidy received license from Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE) on Eco School program. In November 2019, KGT applied for FEE membership with support of Keep Sweden Tidy. In the beginning of March, 2020 KGT received the official approval on FEE associated membership representing Georgia and was licensed to run Eco-Schools (ES) program at the national level and was officially registered in the British register as a member of FEE. KGT was registered on The Eco-School’s project management platform, Podio, and obtained the access to a rich library of resources. KGT achieved the outcome 1.4. Increased capacity of Keep Georgia Tidy and its partners Participated in number of webinars organized by FEE. (7) Conducted and participated in 25 meetings (18 project presentation meetings and 7 online conferences); Translated Eco-schools handbook in Georgian. Signed two Memorandums of Understanding; Launched joint project of KGT and National Library ‘EcoTeka’. KGT started contributing to the outcome 1.1. Increased ecological awareness among 300 000 teachers and children in Public schools and kindergartens in Georgia by 2023 by the following activities: Organized Eco-Contest ‘Take care of the Environment and Win’. A new eco-portal ‘Eco.log’ has been created, which brings together ecofriendly people, Ideas and Activities. It includes: -Eco program ‘Ecologer’, -Infographic videos ‘Ecograph’ -Portraits of Eco-officers -Short advising- videos ‘Eco- recipes. KGT started preparing presentations, training modules and education materials on ES Program for Georgian schools and analysis on gaps between FEE 7 step environmental education system and Georgian national curriculum. GSNE Orchis - Elaborated detailed plan for the essay competition and defined essay topics in the field of waste management, environmental pollution, biodiversity and climate change. GSNE Orchis prepared 11 information booklets and 3 leaflets on various topics related to the environmental protection, environmental pollution, biodiversity, waste management, etc. The topics of the booklets were selected considering their urgency and findings of the need assessment. The seminar about biodiversity, ecosystem services, climate change and its impact on biodiversity, importance of afforestation and habitats restoration, etc. was prepared and delivered to teachers and students of 8 public schools in Shida Kartli and Kvemo Kartli Regions of Georgia and the self-governing Tbilisi City. GSNE “Orchis” organized two small scale bio-restoration campaigns in autumn 2019: One of them was in Tbilisi, when 150 tree seedlings were planted in the Georgian Sweden Friendship Green Corner in Varketili park and its environs during the opening ceremony. The second campaign was carried out in Kaspi Municipalities, where 80 tree seeding were planted in yards of public schools, kindergartens. GSNE “Orchis” started contributing to the outcome 2.2 Increased awareness in 5 municipalities on commitments undertaken in Georgia EU Association Agreement on waste management sector. The stakeholder meetings were organized in 5 municipalities of Samtskhe-Javakheti Region. The project team integrated the awareness raising on bioremediation into their seminars and workshops held for regional and local authorities in 5 municipalities of Samtskhe-Javakheti Region and 8 municipalities of Kakheti Region as the topic is an integral part of for the elimination of dumpsites and their adverse effects that is supposed during the implementation of municipal WMPs. GSNE “Orchis” held an introductory meeting with the regional and municipal authorities of Kakheti Region to establish cooperation and commonly define further actions. This was followed by 12 workshops some of which were arranged commonly with Swedish project partner GÄ at municipality level to collect information necessary for needs assessment and SWOT analysis in 8 municipalities, and plan further actions together with the project team. Total 230 peoples participated in these workshops. As a result, 9 working groups (1 coordination and 8 municipality level working groups) were established in Kakheti Region for the development of the Regional WMP. GSNE “Orchis” started contributing to the outcome 2.9 Increased awareness among 70 000 representatives of stakeholders on the benefits of circular economy; acceleration of Green Economy development, via using waste management improvement as per EU standards and reduction of pollution and accelerate systemic change through wider policy and advocacy work. GSNE “Orchis” engaged the Circular Economy (CE) International Expert, who developed training programs for different target groups. In consequence, two CE Conferences were organized in Tbilisi for policy makers, financial institutions, project promoters and regional and municipal authorities to raise their awareness about circular economy and to provide recommendations how to accelerate the adoption of circular economy principles at various levels of economic activity. As a result of raised awareness, the Government of Georgia (MEPA) requested assistance on broadening the scope of Circular economy component, particularly Development of the Circular Economy Strategy for Georgia - the need for Mapping the Circularity. GMG started contributing to the outcome 2.11 Established community network for monitoring of waste situation in regions (watch-dog system) on the municipalities level is functional. 90 NGOs and initiative groups are united in social network and watchdog methodology has been produced. In this regard series of webinars were held. During the reporting period, no large-scale clean-up activities were carried out (with the exception of the “Clean up the World” campaign) due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. Although, some small-sized and individual actions took place. Starting from July 2019 to June 2020 around 1127 people took part in small –sized and individual actions, during which around 20 ha area has been cleaned up and 75 m3 of wastes were collected. During the three-day campaign ("Clean Up the World", “World Cleanup Day”), September 20-22, about 34130 people took part in cleanup actions throughout the country, all together 357.85 tons of waste was collected cleaned up. Contest “Clean Region” was held for the fourth time and awarding ceremony took place and the winner region Kakheti revealed. Municipal waste management Plans were received from all municipalities and online reviewing has been initiated. Series of expert meetings were initiated for producing first country waste management report.

The overall objective of the intervention is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and pollution of environment by 2023 through environmental sustainable education and promotion circular economy in Georgia. The specific objectives that the programme aims to achieve are: To attain environmentally conscious generation in Georgia by 2023  To reduce pollution from municipal waste (40%) and greenhouse gas emissions (10%) in Georgia by 2023 The proposed intervention aims improvement of knowledge of young generation on main aspects of waste management, its negative impact on health and environment, Climate Change, Biodiversity/Eco systems, Green/Circular Economy and SDGs. KGT with Keep Sweden Tidy cooperation and support will obtain license from Foundation of Environment Education on Eco school/Green Flag programs and implement it first time in Georgia. This program implementation will allow Georgia's placement on Global Eco school map. Raised awareness on pollution of soil, water and air, proper waste disposal among young generation and promotion of clean up campaigns (4 times in a year in all municipalities) will result in behavior change of population and reduction of littering in the country. KGT will work with GMG/FOA on mobilization and clean up actions, monitoring of uncontrolled dumpsites and watch-dog system operations in all municipalities to reduce pollution of environment.   Reduction of littering in the country and cleaned up territories (30% of those territories where the waste collection service is not provided) will be restored together with GNSE Orchis by tree planting (16 ha) that will all together reduce emission (by 5-10%) in the country. KGT will apply 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories. This Tier method is applied for estimating emissions of methane from solid waste disposal sites and tree planting. Baseline data will be collected by KGT in 2020 and the proposed method applied against which the results will be measured in 2020-2023. The Embassy will monitor results measuring according to this methodology. The results and reporting including baseline data will be publicly available for stakeholders, beneficiaries etc. Waste Management system improvement with the support of the Swedish Association Gästrike Återvinnare (GÅ) together with GNSE Orchis and GMG/FOA will support to EU Association Agreement requirements fulfillment in waste sector of Georgia. Circular economy promotion and increased awareness an estimated  700 000 representatives of stakeholders on benefits of circular economy will support to acceleration of green economy development in the country. The proposed intervention will support to implementation of waste management reforms (waste management municipality plans), establishing of new systems like 4 R (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Recover), separation at source, composting, extended producer’s responsibility (enforcement starts December 2019), depositing systems etc. By increasing responsibility of the population via sustainable methods of waste management KGT will promote and facilitate the development and implementation of green/circular economy that needs transformation towards environmental sustainability and increased resource efficiency, strengthened resilience to environmental pressures and risks in Georgia.