On the 18th of March 2011, the documentary “The reverse side of waste” was presented to the schoolchildren of the Khotiv village gymnasium in Kyiv oblast. The film had been shooted on the order of the DESPRO Project to demonstrate correct handling of municipal solid waste. The video demonstrates relevant bright examples and successful practices.

Teachers of the gymnasium teach children to handle waste correctly at sustainable development class. Schoolchildren of the 8th grade who took part in the shooting of the documentary of the DESPRO project did their own investigation of how Khotiv`s inhabitants handled municipal solid waste. In its course the children learnt how the communal services solved the garbage problem, asked people about ecological problems in a poll, explored the streets of Khotiv for garbage containers and examined effectiveness of work of a recycling point.

Mykola Bezpechnyi, Head of the Khotiv village Council noted that schoolchildren constitute a very influential audience for spreading ideas of correct handling of MSW. He is confident that when children know how important it is to sort out waste for recycling and utilization and make it unharmful to the environment, then their parents will know that too. A new generation should adopt advanced ideas, innovative and ecological approaches, as they are needed not only by our society but by the whole planet.

The presentation at the gymnasium was attended by schoolchildren of 5th -10th grades. Altogether there were about 250 children, teachers and school administration staff, representatives of a parent committee, Mykola Bezpechnyi (Head of the Village Council), Andre Olshevski (Expert for MSW Management, Swiss Resource Centre and Consultancies for Development – Skat), Volodymyr Kuznietsov (Director of the documentary “The reverse side of waste”). Staff of the Despro – Decentralisation Support to Ukraine Project attended the meeting too. Among them were Oksana Garnets (Project Manager in Ukraine), Viacheslav Sorokovskyi (Expert for decentralisation), Andriy Artov (Expert for MSW Management), Olena Sukhodolska (PR Manager).