Yevgenia Aratovska: How the desire to live in a clean world turned into a successful eco-project

– Yevgenia, how did you get the desire to create the “No Waist Ukraine” project?
– From personal awareness and the desire to see a clean environment, to relax in cleanliness, became the catalyst and the question “What can I do as a citizen?” And I started looking for options for how to sort garbage. And when I found them, I realized that the customer service there is very bad and few people will achieve results. That is, go to the collection point, and if it works, then you are a little lucky. But it smells bad there and the contingent is not clear. I will not go there with my children. What other options are sorting tanks? I see how garbage trucks mix everything. It turns out that I want to take care of the environment, but there are no clear, convenient, guaranteed solutions. From a feeling of despair and a desire to stop this, the “Ukraine without garbage” project began. This is an example of situational leadership and, perhaps, the search for a better model. And this model was generated by the request of like-minded people, in civil society. Not by classic business and not by the authorities.

– Tell me about the sorting station “Ukraine without waste”
– It’s not enough to put up the tanks, it’s not enough to put up the station. People will usually bring a lot of different waste, but if you don’t know where to transfer this waste later, then it’s a stupid idea. Therefore, when I was thinking about how to create a station, I thought about what capacities we would accept, and how to equip these capacities so that it would be convenient to reload them, it’s about convenience. At first, I just Googled – “I’ll buy polypropylene”, I called, and asked for details and sometimes these were such procurement bases, quite large and professional. When they heard my request, they were surprised, they said: “Are yours clean, seriously?”, “I don’t believe it!” I knew that a white bottle, for example, could be recycled, but they don’t accept it at the collection points, because it started to stink there, you need to teach people how to wash these bottles. And then teach them how to wash the tanks. We taught. We convinced the harvesters that we would have clean and compressed materials, there would be no risks, and they gradually started working with us. Before that, they did not accept these fractions, because no one could hand them over in normal quality.

 – How did you teach people that you accept clean raw materials and do not pay them, but they do?
– It is all different for people. But it is all high motivation for change. There is, for example, one person like me. I love nature, and a clean environment. I want my children to have access to a clean environment. I believe that a dirty environment is dangerous for my health, and as an honest, decent person who reflects, I realized that I also need to change my behavior.

 – How much does a person pay now to come to your station and hand over their secondary raw materials?
– We work on the principle of a subscription. Like in clubs that bear the costs of rent, team salaries, and electricity. We cannot count on a person coming to us and paying upon the fact of the visit. That is why we charge a subscription fee. This helps our community become better. And our capsules will be waiting for our guests in very good condition. Always clean and tidy. It costs 250 UAH per family per month. And we connect a subscription for 3 months. Because it is important to us that a person goes with us on a long distance. Because a month is very little to form a habit. Three months – a person is already mentally ready for the fact that I am sorting and I am preparing to come here.

 – And how to motivate other people to become a circle of like-minded people?
– It all starts with such clear communication on the page where we write some topic. Where let’s go like this. What are your thoughts? And the discussion begins. You can read a lot of different comments in this discussion. Someone starts defending, saying that it’s true, finally, there’s a place where you can sort. I’ll come anyway. Someone says, what the hell is this nonsense and they won’t pay me for it? And then our lawyers, our project’s fans, come to this person and start explaining it all to them. That is when you bring it all out on a public platform – there is communication. Sometimes you don’t have to prove much – other people who are already doing it that way do it. But it’s a long process and I don’t know the magic pill, how to make it so that everyone starts sorting.

 – When did you realize that UBS is a successful project?
– When you’re just starting and don’t know what to expect and you have no experience creating projects, and then you see people coming – then I was sometimes so surprised that I thought I wouldn’t be able to do it. People come with 5 bags and spend 40 minutes, laying everything out. And I look at these people as Atlanteans who do such hard work. I didn’t think about success, but about the fact that this is growing into such a serious community that needs to be taken care of and I have no right to quit it. If I get tired, if I burn out, some life circumstances will arise – I no longer have the right to quit. So many people believe in it, invest, and give their time. Now it’s a matter of life, where you take super responsible care of the project being stable, existing, developing, increasing turnover and the number of people visiting us increasing.

 – Is this already a business?
– This is already a business! Yes, we are profitable precisely in this aspect of our business. The only, that I’m still worried about this is not the predicted demand. Because we work in the field of behavioral economics. And today the necessary number of people come to us, to buy services. Tomorrow the circumstances have changed, electricity prices have been raised, fuel has stopped selling, people cannot get there, and we are in a threatening situation. That is, this is not the bread that is bought every day. This is not some kind of postal service when you need to send something or pick something up.

 – Tell me, what exactly are you sorting right now?
– We sort all secondary resources. There are 4 types of materials and this is packaging. Packaging is mostly for food products, as well as for appliances and electronics. We do not accept hazardous waste. That is, this is exclusively household waste. Glass, all types of glass, except construction waste, paper, all types of paper, everything except PVC plastic. Plastic is mainly PVC (a polymer of vinyl chloride, the basis for obtaining which is acetylene. Vinyl chloride has long established itself as one of the most important chemical compounds), it is toxic, and practically all over the world it is not recycled. For now, it can only be accumulated until humanity finds some safer technology.

Can all recyclables be recycled in Ukraine?
Yes, absolutely all. There are entrepreneurs who simply purchase part of the waste from abroad, or in the form of recycled granules, and use them. They do not believe that we can collect high-quality material in Ukraine, not dirty, not from landfills.