The country's first regional waste management information center will be opened in Kopyś
The country's first regional information center for the management of persistent organic pollutants and hazardous chemicals will be established in Kopyś, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection reported.
The information center is being created on the basis of the state educational institution "Kopyś Kindergarten - Secondary School of the Orsha District" and the nature protection institution "Ecological Sphere" during the implementation of the Global Environment Facility Small Grants Programme project with the support of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection and the United Nations Development Programme in Belarus.
"Volunteer groups of local residents, mainly young people, will be formed and trained at the information center to identify unauthorized landfills and storage sites with obsolete pesticides and chemicals, as well as containers used for their storage. This will allow for a final inventory of hazardous chemical accumulation sites and prompt measures for their elimination, which will improve the environmental situation in the region and contribute to the creation of a sustainable system for managing persistent organic pollutants and hazardous chemicals," the department explained.
During the project implementation, it is planned to purchase equipment for landscaping and tidying up the adjacent territory, land reclamation after the elimination of unauthorized waste landfills, and the establishment of an experimental plot for growing plants in accordance with the principles of organic farming – without the use of chemicals. A chemical laboratory will be equipped to conduct analyses to determine the content of chemical compounds in environmental components: water, soil, plants. "Students of Kopyś Secondary School themselves proposed a name for the information center and, under the guidance of professional designers and graphic artists, developed its logo. Given the environmental information and educational focus of the center's activities, it was named 'Green Light'," the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection said.