SIBUR Supports Launch of a Plastic Recycling Workshop in Dzerzhinsk

30 april 2021

At an opening ceremony on April 28, Dzerzhinsk welcomed a brand-new workshop for recycling second-hand plastics. This was accomplished as part of the Recycling Workshop initiative supported by SIBUR under its corporate social investment program, the Formula for Good Deeds. City residents will now be given an opportunity to observe the complete cycle of polymers recycling and then handcraft various items from the resulting recycled materials.

The workshop is housed at the Dzerzhinsk Polytechnic Institute, a part of R. E. Alexeyev Nizhny Novgorod State Technical University (DPI NSTU) at 49, Gaidar St., Building 2, Room 2110. Additionally, waste cans for collecting polymer waste and benches built out of recycled plastics will be installed in various locations across the city.

Dzerzhinsk residents will be able to take advantage of a busy educational program that has been put together specially for them, including May 18-20 master classes on environmental literacy and recycling conducted by leading experts from "zerowaste.lab", a creative research laboratory.

According to Olga Shkurenko, SIBUR-Neftekhim's environmental protection expert, SIBUR's environmental strategy involves application of circular economy principles including recycling of production and consumption waste, including plastics, for subsequent reuse This is reflected in the way the company has been approaching both its core operations and its social and welfare projects and policies.

SIBUR takes environmental issues very seriously and it has been developing measures to reduce its negative impact on the environment. The Recycling Workshop project is an excellent example of how plastics can be recycled and converted into other items and materials that can be later reused for producing the same kinds of plastic products, Olga Shkurenko emphasized.

Ivan Noskov, Dzerzhinsk’s Mayor, addressed the audience with his welcoming remarks.

We do understand that environmental protection is our number one priority today. Projects like this need our support because they show very clearly how waste can be turned into raw materials and used as feedstocks. The launch of this recycling workshop in Dzerzhinsk is an important step toward taking real measures aimed at helping our environment, the city’s head commented.

The opening ceremony was attended by Alexander Petrovsky, DPI NSTU’s Director.

As part of its involvement with the Formula for Good Deeds program, our institute has been working closely with school students. The workshop will give a new impetus to developing knowledge and skills in the field of chemistry dealing with reprocessing of plastics, the head of the university noted.

Anna Chigarina, Executive Director of the Uspekh Foundation and project lead of the Recycling Workshop project, congratulated the ceremony’s attendees on this significant accomplishment and expressed her gratitude to the project’s partners.

This is the second recycling workshop of its kind opened in Russia. The first one was set up in Tobolsk. In 2021, similar workshops will also be opened in Nizhnevartovsk and Perm. Our dream is to have such workshops at every educational institution of our country. It is important to effect change in the mindsets of people of the younger generation starting at an early childhood age and to show them how to properly separate recyclable waste and what can be made out of it, Anna said.

Georgy Kavanosyan, an environmentalist, hydrogeologist, blogger, and mastermind of Ecology, a YouTube-based project, also took part in the ceremony. He noted that quite often, when separating waste for its subsequent recycling, we face skepticism of others who fail to understand why this is necessary. Recycling Workshop will help people observe the recycling process and see its importance, and take a direct part in it.

One can register for the workshop’s master classes at the project’s website at: www.workshop-recycle.ru.

The very first workshop opened as part of SIBUR's Recycling Workshop project was a workshop in Tobolsk launched in December 2020. This year, on May 11 through 13, it will host educational master classes. Another event held within the framework of the project was the All-Russian environmental competition #imakemycityclean that saw participation of more than five thousand schoolchildren from 53 regions of Russia. Applications were invited in the following four categories: "Posters and Drawings"; "Project and Research Activities"; "Tales, Poems and Essays", and "Videos and Photos". On March 10, a panel of experts announced each category’s three top performers.

One can join the project's environmental community on VK and  Instagram social networks.