Forum

Would you select the home waste?
 

In the month that follows the International Planet Earth Day (22 April), and comes before the World Environmental Day (5 June), we are asking a question which directly refers to the civic awareness of the environment: are you ready to select the home waste if the country or the business sector raises initiatives for recycling different types of waste? In Skopje, we are witnessing the positive experience from the paper selection by citizens, economic subjects and different organizations and institutions, initiated by AD "Komuna", which collects and recycles old paper. Are you ready to do the same with the glass and plastic bottles, the cans, textile waste, even organic waste, if somebody agrees to collect it from your homes or work places, in order to reduce the waste that pollutes our environment, and efficiently use it 9recycle it) for new production? Are you ready to cooperate for the common interests - cleaner environment, less rubbish and more possibilities for development, employment, and encouraging the production?

Please send your replies to the "Civic World" Forum web-sites: www.graganskisvet.org.mk or www.civicworld.org.mk , stating your full name and surname and the name of your organization (if member of any).

For a start, this is how some people active in the civic sector reflect upon this issue:

 
Vera Dimitrievska, OSIMF: 
I think that it is high time we started selecting the waste and find ways to re-use it, instead of throwing it away. I would certainly become part of such an initiative, if raised by someone. I already select the waste in my house, as well as at work. At work, we also select the old paper, collected by AD "Komuna", and at home we select it and use it. I put the glass and plastic bottles in separate bags. Where I live, they are collected by a private communal company and I don't know what happens with them afterwards, but I hope they are used in some way or other, and that they are not mixed with the other waste at the dump. I think that we should introduce the process of recycling the various types of rubbish in Macedonia, and that there is a certain level of awareness regarding its acceptance within the population. 
 
Alisa Limanova: 
I am ready to select the rubbish at my house. If containers for plastic and glass bottles, cans and other rubbish are place, I will throw the rubbish in the right place, and not together with the other rubbish. I think that many other citizens will understand that it will lead to encouraging the production and making it cheaper, as well as new employments and cleaner environment. I really cannot understand why do people not organize themselves to select the waste. However, it should be well organized, there should be enough containers and they should be near people's homes.
 

From the last month debate
 
Do you agree with the official Macedonian position towards the war against Iraq and with the way it was decided?
 
In the month of April, on the "Civic World" web-sites we ask one of the currently most popular questions: the war against Iraq. We have set the question on local level and asked for your opinion: Do you agree with the official Macedonian position for supporting USA and Great Britain in their action against Iraq? Do you think citizens should have been asked as well? Do you think that the authorities should have asked for the public opinion, and even organize a referendum? Do you think that the citizens should have decided upon this question or no?
You can still express your opinion regarding this question on the "Civic World" web-sites. Here are the attitudes of several people that took part at the Forum:
 
Todor Mihajlovski: 
I do not agree with the Government decision to support USA and Great Britain in their attack on Iraq. But I leave room for the fact that it might have been necessary, that Macedonia sees its interest here. However, I think that regarding such an important issue, the Government should have organized a referendum. In other countries, referendums are organized regarding some trivial issues, not mentioning issues of great importance such as this one. I think that this was an example of a non-democratic government decision.