TSU’s Scientific Library unveiled #NO_GARBAGE, a traveling manifesto exhibition

9 december 2022

The photo exhibition is part of the Think and Act project by the Youth Forum of Eco-Initiatives that has become a winner of the contest of students’ volunteering projects implemented as part of SIBUR's Formula for Good Deeds program.

The exhibition’s goal is to highlight the problem of waste and show ways to tackle it. The photos displayed at the exhibition were taken by TSU students who are members of the New ERA eco-club.

Garbage is waste that is no longer needed by anyone and is just thrown away. Garbage is anything that cannot be recycled in any given community. But not all waste is garbage.

-      Our ambition is to demonstrate clearly and succinctly the dangers of mindless consumption and waste generation and to urge people to change their habits. By presenting images and stirring up emotions, we were capitalizing on what makes today's youths unique: their propensity for mosaic thinking. We hope that our exhibition will evoke such strong emotions as interest, curiosity, surprise, indignation, and that down the line people will try to rethink their views on garbage and work toward reducing it, Asiya Boltovskaya, the head of the New ERA eco-club of volunteers, commented.

-      The #NO_GARBAGE photo exhibition carries an important social message. These photos don’t just highlight our current environmental problems, they also make us think about our own conduct and attitude toward the environment. The photo exhibition has a particularly strong impact on younger people. Given that the photo exhibition was put together by students who are essentially young people caring about the environment and the issue of waste, they will be spreading the word and raising their peers’ environmental awareness. They didn’t just show their creativity with highlighting the waste problem, they also delved deep down into this topic and were able to get many others involved, too. I think that this exhibition deserves to be also shown in Tomsk’s other public spaces, Olga Zapryagayeva, acting head of the Public Relations Department of the Regional Committee for Environmental Protection and Natural Resources Management, commented.

-      This photo exhibition attempts to draw the public’s attention to one of the most pressing problems of the modern age, the one of garbage and waste. Garbage and waste are a threat to our environment and, therefore, a threat to mankind. The exhibition’s authors have done a tremendous job. When you look at these photos, you cannot but feel immediately that these young people are really concerned about this problem. The exhibition is good at stirring up the very emotions that are supposed to make people reconsider their daily habits and stop buying stuff they don’t need, start sorting their waste and wean themselves off of using disposable products. The exhibition was put together with the support of SIBUR and its Formula for Good Deeds social investment program. One of the principal goals of the program is to encourage local initiatives and help build vibrant urban communities. TSU’s New Era eco-club is one such community. The students are doing what is very important and necessary: they are changing our world for the better! Sergey Petyunkin, an ecologist with Tomskneftekhim, noted.