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Cycling against trash
Eco-Bike Caravan
A group of twenty cyclists braved an uncharacteristically wet and miserable few weeks this June and July to ride from Vranje to Novi Sad to spread the message of Oplaneti Se! (Get with the Plan(et)!). The message they carried, quite literally, on messages boards behind their bikes was a call to action to clean up the thousands of illegal dump sites that litter Serbia’s countryside.
The cyclists, riding under the moniker of “Eco-Bike Caravan” pushed off from Vranje on June 23, with the Minister of Environmental Protection and Spatial Planning Oliver Dulic on hand to give them encouragement in spreading their message across Serbia. Over the course of the next few weeks, the riders covered almost 600 kilometers and traversed 15 municipalities. On July 8th, to correspond with the opening of the EXIT Festival, the “600km crew” was joined for the last 19km by about two dozen riders from the U.S. Embassy, USAID implementers and even the Hungarian Embassy. As USAID Mission Director Michael Harvey noted, “We joined in for the easy part, 19km mostly downhill, but the real heroes are this crew which came all the way up Serbia from Vranje and through some really nasty weather.”
The bike ride was the icing on the cake for the “Get with the Plan(et)!” campaign organized by the 12 NGOs gathered together in “The Green List of Serbia” and supported through USAID’s Civil Society Project. Starting in April, a series of clean ups were conducted in 12 locations in 11 municipalities. Local schoolchildren, celebrities (including Rambo Amadeus) and politicians all pitched in to collect approximately 400 cubic meters of trash from parks, river beds, roadsides and city squares. In Raška, much to the volunteers’ surprise, a Serbian Army Lieutenant-Colonel even showed up with squads of soldiers to clean seven dump sites in the city and to remove garbage around the Army’s facilities. Army trucks then hauled the garbage away to public dumps.
After sites were cleaned, scouts planted trees and most participating municipalities took measures to reclaim the areas as green spaces through efforts like planting grass and adding trash and recycling bins.
The cyclists, riding under the moniker of “Eco-Bike Caravan” pushed off from Vranje on June 23, with the Minister of Environmental Protection and Spatial Planning Oliver Dulic on hand to give them encouragement in spreading their message across Serbia. Over the course of the next few weeks, the riders covered almost 600 kilometers and traversed 15 municipalities. On July 8th, to correspond with the opening of the EXIT Festival, the “600km crew” was joined for the last 19km by about two dozen riders from the U.S. Embassy, USAID implementers and even the Hungarian Embassy. As USAID Mission Director Michael Harvey noted, “We joined in for the easy part, 19km mostly downhill, but the real heroes are this crew which came all the way up Serbia from Vranje and through some really nasty weather.”
The bike ride was the icing on the cake for the “Get with the Plan(et)!” campaign organized by the 12 NGOs gathered together in “The Green List of Serbia” and supported through USAID’s Civil Society Project. Starting in April, a series of clean ups were conducted in 12 locations in 11 municipalities. Local schoolchildren, celebrities (including Rambo Amadeus) and politicians all pitched in to collect approximately 400 cubic meters of trash from parks, river beds, roadsides and city squares. In Raška, much to the volunteers’ surprise, a Serbian Army Lieutenant-Colonel even showed up with squads of soldiers to clean seven dump sites in the city and to remove garbage around the Army’s facilities. Army trucks then hauled the garbage away to public dumps.
After sites were cleaned, scouts planted trees and most participating municipalities took measures to reclaim the areas as green spaces through efforts like planting grass and adding trash and recycling bins.
Making Serbia greener one bottle at a time
As a follow on, USAID is supporting the EXIT festival’s “Green Guerilla” campaign to increase awareness of renewable energy resources. The overall goal of these efforts is to raise awareness that renewable energy sources, and especially biomass, are creating a cleaner, healthier and more sustainable environment, and also promote cost effective business models that achieve substantial savings. This is part of USAID’s Competiveness Project’s overall goal of enabling Serbian firms to be more competitive in the world market.
EXIT’s “Green Guerilla” campaign strives to motivate young people to start thinking about environmental issues and sustainable development. “Green Guerilla” will be active 365 days, independently of EXIT Festival, and it will create a “platform” for young people to communicate with each other and exchange ideas and practices. The tools which will be used are effective, interesting, and “cool”, and will be used to promote “green” messages. The USAID Serbia Competitiveness Project is supporting the production of eco bags which is one of the key tools used to advance this message.
The global trend towards “Going Green” is being encouraged by policies of international and governmental institutions, the EU and national governments. According to the EU Renewable Energy Directive, 20% of total energy use in EU countries must be generated from renewable sources by 2020. The use of renewable energy sources domestically will thereby facilitate Serbia’s EU accession.
The “Going Green” trend is also being encouraged by consumers. The EU Commission has established a European Green Capital award for cities that represent best practices in sustainable development (Stockholm and Hamburg have been chosen for 2010 and 2011). Buildings are now being certified as green, and eco furniture that is made of sustainable materials is rising in popularity, as is organic food, and cosmetics and clothes that carry the “green” label.
Even parties and festivals are becoming green, and Serbia’s own EXIT is currently seeking the European Green Festival certification. Being certified as “Green Festival” will ensure that this number one European festival sustains its leading position and popularity.
EXIT’s “Green Guerilla” campaign strives to motivate young people to start thinking about environmental issues and sustainable development. “Green Guerilla” will be active 365 days, independently of EXIT Festival, and it will create a “platform” for young people to communicate with each other and exchange ideas and practices. The tools which will be used are effective, interesting, and “cool”, and will be used to promote “green” messages. The USAID Serbia Competitiveness Project is supporting the production of eco bags which is one of the key tools used to advance this message.
The global trend towards “Going Green” is being encouraged by policies of international and governmental institutions, the EU and national governments. According to the EU Renewable Energy Directive, 20% of total energy use in EU countries must be generated from renewable sources by 2020. The use of renewable energy sources domestically will thereby facilitate Serbia’s EU accession.
The “Going Green” trend is also being encouraged by consumers. The EU Commission has established a European Green Capital award for cities that represent best practices in sustainable development (Stockholm and Hamburg have been chosen for 2010 and 2011). Buildings are now being certified as green, and eco furniture that is made of sustainable materials is rising in popularity, as is organic food, and cosmetics and clothes that carry the “green” label.
Even parties and festivals are becoming green, and Serbia’s own EXIT is currently seeking the European Green Festival certification. Being certified as “Green Festival” will ensure that this number one European festival sustains its leading position and popularity.
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