KGC Employees and Partners Clean Ton Beaches

published: 29 July 2016

Twenty KGC employees jointly with the representatives of local authorities, youth organizations and Jashyl Bilik Public Fund cleaned three beaches in the Ton district and built an eco-beach in the village of Ton under the Green Point Project last weekend.

During the event, they collected 200 kg of glass, 512 kg of plastic, 47 kg of waste paper/metal and 693 kg of food waste. All the waste was sent to the Kajisai waste receiving point that had been opened last month under the KGC-sponsored Green Point Project. Five beach chairs, nine trash cans and one pavilion were arranged on the beach at Ton. All were manufactured out of waste wood and metal. According to the schedule, the same amount of items will be arranged on the beach soon. One more eco-beach will be built in the village of Barskoon, Jety-Oguz district.
A total of six waste receiving points have been opened under the said project both at the northern and southern coasts of Lake Issyk-Kul. Anyone is free to sell waste for processing, get some money and thus contribute to the conservation cause.

Activists and volunteers from among employees and tourists have cleaned the beach at Ton and two beaches at Kajisai. At Kajisai, a number of contests and a short concert were organized for tourists. All activists were awarded prizes and memorable gifts while active children were given gifts from Kumtor, including table games and books while grown-ups received special writing pads, eco-bags, mugs, T-shirts, key rings and sweaters.

“We see it as very important to promote traditions of separate waste collection and care for the environment. By holding such events we want to show that it is both real and practicable to separate waste. Moreover, by seeing how much waste has been collected on the beach the tourists, we hope, will behave in a more responsible manner and will keep the area clean,” said Dmitry Andreyev, Coordinator, Green Point Project.

“We are happy to take part in the Company’s environmental project and, thus, set an example to beach visitors. We were pleased to see that most people on the beach didn’t remain on the sideline and joined the event. Especially, we were impressed by the fact that children, too, contributed to the event and helped us enthusiastically,” said Gulbara Jumagulova, a KGC employee.
For reference: The Green Pont Project is designed to promote the green economy and separate waste collection. The project is supposed to provide 25 full-time jobs and employ a further 200 young people to ensure the continuous operation of waste receiving points in the summer. Approximately, 10 environmental events will be held under this project, including volunteer clean-ups, improvement of recreation areas, and lake bottom cleaning operations in a number of places. Under the project, three local vocational schools are supposed to launch three workshops to manufacture trash tanks, arrange bicycle parking lots as well as make eco-bags and paper bags. This conservation project will cover the northern and southern coasts while waste receiving points will be arranged at Bokonbayevo, Kajisai, Balykchi, Cholpon-Ata and Karakol. Kumtor Company is expected to contribute 8 million soms to this two-year project.