“Tazartu kuni”: environmental campaign of AlES
Spring is a time of renewal. Yet the warmth of the sun is not enough to make nature come alive. It needs human hands, warm hearts and mindfulness. This is what the environmental campaign “Tazartu kuni” is dedicated to, which was held by the employees of AlES JSC in the first days of March. More than 320 employees of the Company have united to collect more than 35 tonnes of rubbish, clean their production departments, adjacent territories and make a step towards the future, where there will be no place for ecological indifference.
Every year Kazakhstan “produces” 4.5 million tons of household waste – it is like a mountain that grows, suppressing all living creatures. But AlES believes that even one segregated battery or kilograms of waste paper is a contribution to the life.
“Separate collection is not just containers for paper, plastic and glass. It is a way of saying, “We are responsible for what we leave behind”, says Lena Davydova, an environmental engineer at CHPP-1 named after B.Orazbayev.
The company’s production departments have already implemented a separate collection system for several years. And you can see the results:
– reduction of soil pollution – less toxins seep into the ground;
– preserve the resources – recycled paper saves trees, and recycled plastic substitutes for oil;
– cleaner air – less rubbish in landfills means fewer harmful emissions.
Those who pass by the containers, stop for a second to throw paper not into the general bin, but into a special one. Those who realize that their choice today is the air their children will breathe in tomorrow.
“Tazartu kuni” is just one part of a larger mosaic. In 2024, the company’s employees have already cleaned up the Prokhodnaya River, saved the Butakovo Gorge of rubbish, collected batteries and abandoned plastic in favor of eco-bags. Each action is like a drop that sharpens the stone of indifference.
– When we were cleaning up the river, we found a child’s toy – a shabby teddy bear. Someone had thrown it away like an unwanted thing. But nature is not a rubbish dump. We restored the cleanliness of the shore, and we gave back the understanding that even a small deed matters to ourselves, said Aliya Doshojaeva, an environmental engineer at Zhakutov CHPP-2.
In the book by Kazakhstani political scientist Dosym Satpayev, there is a disturbing alarm sound: Kazakhstan’s environmental problems are the “bombs” ticking beneath the future. “We are all in the same boat,” the author writes. And AlES employees are trying to keep this boat afloat.
After the campaign, I asked my son, “What’s a clean planet mean to you?” He replied, “To keep the birds from getting tangled in the plastic bags, and you and I could drink water from the river”. Children understand this better than we do. Our task is not to deceive their expectations, says Natalia Mitusova, an environmental engineer at the Cascade of Hydroelectric Power Plants, one of the participants in “Tazartu kuni”.
Ecology is not an abstract concept. It is the choice of each of us:
– to refuse a plastic bag in a shop;
– to dispose of batteries at a special facility instead of throwing them in the waste;
– to clean up after ourselves not only at home, but also in the forest, at a picnic.
– We are not the owners of the Earth, but its guests. And as good guests, we should keep it tidy, they say in AlES.
The campaign is over, but its message remains: cleanliness starts with a small thing. It starts with the decision of one person. Asking the question: “What can I do today so that tomorrow it won’t be too late?”
May the day “Tazartu kuni” become not just a day of cleaning, but a day when we remember that nature is our common home. Its walls are the sky, which we want to see blue, and its foundation is the earth, which we must keep alive.