“Training on the preparation of the Municipal Waste Management Plans”

The Georgian Waste Code requires that municipalities prepare a Municipal Waste Management Plan and the Code outlines the main content. During this one year training for the municipalities in Imereti and Racha-Lechkhumi Kvemo Svaneti, all aspects of municipal waste planning were discussed, the municipalities prepared a Municipal Waste Management Plan and were trained in implementing and monitoring.

Date: December 2016 – December 2017

Organisation: SWMCG and PEM-consult

“Separation, Collection, Recycling” – workshop on building up an effective separate collection and recycling system in Georgia

How should citizens best separate waste into different fractions (plastic, paper, glass, metal)? How do we convince the public to separate their waste? How could municipalities best organize the collection and assure that the collected materials will be recycled

Date: 30 October 2018

Organisation: SWMCG and PEM-consult

“Training on financial aspects of municipal waste management, including a detailed assessment of the financial administration of Tskaltubo municipality”

Financing municipal waste management is a complex matter and requires financial and political choices. How to determine the costs of waste collection and street cleaning? Should people pay for this service and if so, how much? Should everybody pay or can exemptions be made for vulnerable people? How to calculate the “affordability” of the services? How to set up the municipal administration to make sure all costs are covered?

Date: February 2020

Organisation: SWMCG and PEM-consult

“Promoting the SWMCG and its services – Regional Public Awareness Campaign in Imereti and Racha-Lechkhumi and Kvemo Svaneti in spring 2019”

During the 3-months campaign from March to May 2019 the new waste management system for Georgia, the concept of new regional landfills and the achievements of the SWMCG up to now have been promoted in the project regions:

• About 100 000 households received a four-page newsletter
• 3 video clips and 3 radio spots were broadcasted intensively during 3 months
• PR officers of all 16 municipalities were informed and involved during a kick-off workshop
• Municipalities assured distribution and presentation of the newsletter in rural areas.
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Date: March – May 2019

Organisation: SWMCG and PEM-consult

“Journalist’s briefings: review of project achievements 2016 – 2017”

Media report on critical issues such as site selection of the regional waste management facilities, on plans for separate collection. Anticipating such reports, journalists were briefed by the SWMCG and the project team on major issues and progress.

Date: September 2016 – September 2017

Organisation: SWMCG and PEM-consult

“PR and communication promoting the Integrated Solid Waste Management system Kutaisi (ISWMK)”

This comprises two strategic documents as well as several newsletters and other information materials on the progress of the project and promoting the SWMCG achievements, the new waste management system and the concept of environmentally safe landfills

Date: September 2015 – November 2019

Organisation: SWMCG and PEM-consult

‘INFORM-INVITE-INVOLVE’ instead of ‘DECIDE-ANNOUNCE-DEFEND’

The presently in Georgia still widely practiced approach to developing and implementing huge infrastructure projects has been described in literature as: “DECIDE – ANNOUNCE – DEFEND” and is dominating the site selection / siting process. In Georgia, as elsewhere, this has resulted in strong resistance of the concerned population against many large-scale infrastructure projects.

The analysis and lessons learned from the case of the planned new regional waste management facility for the Imereti and Racha-Lechkhumi and Kvemo Svaneti regions, to be built close to the village Chognari, are the base and the starting point for the new approach which is presented in this document.

The key element of this new stakeholder engagement and public participation approach is to involve the public in the discussion in order to assess and consider adequately the specific social, cultural, historical, and economic aspects related to the construction of a new landfill. This is summarised by the words: “INFORM – INVITE – INVOLVE“

The ISWMK project has developed therefore a practical set of documents, presenting the approach, the methodology and the tools for implementing this new approach. This is presented in the ‘SEPP Toolbox’.

The SEPP Toolbox consists of 12 Modules. The central document is the ‘SEPP_Toolbox_01_Master_Stratgey’. The other documents are practical tools that were developed during the implementation of the SEPP in Imereti. These tools shall be used as guidelines and may need to be adapted and/ or complemented for each new project / situation. .

Date: December 2019 – September 2021

Organisation: SWMCG and PEM-consult

“Improving municipal waste services in the semi-urban and rural municipalities of the project region” – pilot project in Tsageri

A particular challenge is the need to improve SWM services in mountainous, rural and semi-urban areas with limited accessibility and low infrastructure progress. In this analysis and pilot, methods and tools to enhance the coverage, quality and efficiency of collection were explored in order to ensure an environmental sound but affordable management of the waste generated in these remote areas.

Together with the municipalities Tsageri and Lentekhi in the Racha-Lechkhumi and Kvemo Svaneti region, field investigation campaigns on the collection performance and waste composition during a one-year term were conducted. The project resulted in several recommendations to improve and expand the collection service and to improve the administration of the services, among others by setting up a container register and recommendations on procurement of new equipment

Date: August 2019 – March 2020

Organisation: SWMCG and PEM-consult

“Home and village composting is an easy and cost-effective way to reduce waste that needs to be landfill and, if well done, gives a good quality product that can be used in gardening.”

Date: November 2019 – December 2021

Organisation: SWMCG and PEM-consult