Waste knows no borders and at the same time unites us

The waste knows no boundaries and when it enters the water it does not even know its owner.

People had the opportunity to hear about this issue and our international cooperation from our guest and partner from Hungary, Dávid Feférvari, who presented his activities in the online space on the platform of the IUVENTA  youth organization. From 41:38 with a Slovak translation.

You can also find his presentation in the appendix below the article.

Dávid Fehérvári, a native of Komárom (Hungary),

founded an association focused on cleaning the environment at the age of 24 and is part of the international activity Clean Rivers Experience. He studied political science at Corvinus University of Budapest and is currently a student of political science at the College of Public Administration, where he will defend his doctoral thesis next year.

Since June 2020, in addition to KÖSZ (Kisvárosi Önkéntes Szemétszedők) organisation, he has been working at the

Ministry for Innovation and Technology in Budapest as a government official in the field of sustainability

when he had the opportunity to participate in the first day of PET Cup 2020 Tisza, where he received many inspirations, ideas and motivations.

As part of the scholarship, he had the opportunity to spend 4 months at the Hungarian Consulate General in Munich. He was very surprised to see and find out how far ahead Germany is when it comes to sustainability, a healthy lifestyle and environment, a plastic and metal return system and an extensive selective waste collection system, a well-developed wide network of road bikes, urban beekeeping, etc. But what fascinated him the most was the cleanliness in all the cities, the parks, on the river bank, in the forests.

He grew up in Komárom, spent his childhood on the banks of the Danube, and when he returned from Munich and came to the banks of the Danube, he was shocked to see how polluted the banks were and what "crap" was there. He decided to go back there and clean up the area.

When they finished cleaning, they had a strange feeling when they looked at the cleared shore and the collected garbage, and here the idea was born that he would continue to do so and that he wanted to do something for his surroundings. David said: "I wanted to draw people's attention to the problem of waste. To this end, in February 2020, I successfully applied for a publication opportunity at the National University of Public Service. In my study, I looked for various solutions to prevent and eliminate illegal waste disposal. While writing the study, I first continued collecting garbage myself, and then my friend Dani joined me. In May 2020, we have created our Facebook page and more and more joined us, thanks to which in November 2021 our movement became an association called Volunteers for the removal of waste from a small town. "

In June 2020, their first public event took place, which was attended by a total of about 80 people, and in a few hours they managed to collect about 200 bags of municipal waste. The summer promotion has since been followed by a number of smaller and larger collecting events.

However, due to the COVID pandemic situation, they failed to organize a public event and if so, a small one, individually according to the pandemic restrictions.

In March this year, they successfully submitted an application for the "Country Cleanup" project, announced by the Hungarian government. From the tender, they had the opportunity to complete the work that had begun last summer, thus completing the cleaning of Szőny Island. They collected and selected waste so that it could return it to circulation and thus support the circular economy.

In addition, they are receiving feedback from many residents of Komárom about various illegal dumping, which they are constantly cleaning up as far as possible and in cooperation with the town.

"As part of the tender, we have the opportunity to place a nature trail sign on the island. Our goal is to use signs to alert people to the problems caused by river waste and other garbage. We are guided by two thoughts, ideas; in our opinion, we can all do something for our environment and, on the other hand, we believe that waste collection is not "chic" at all and can be considered a hobby. Our goal is to present these principles to a wider range of society, for which we want to make a traveling exhibition of the waste we collect. "

Acquaintances and friends from David's hometown join the association and activities, and this year they plan to involve other cities, Eger and Gyula.

On April 17, they participated in the HHI challenge and waste disposal campaign in cooperation with the Kayak & Canoe Club in Komárno and with an event on the island of Szőny.

They were happy to accept this request because, in their opinion, river waste knows no borders. We consider it very important to inform people that the problem cannot be solved in one country or another, and that we must work together to solve it. It may not be our waste, but it is polluting our river, our cities, our planet and our immediate surroundings. We look at waste on the banks of the Danube, in parks or at stations every day. However, we ourselves are also the solution, through our decisions not to throw away garbage, but to collect garbage that will cross our path.

It may still be a tilting at windmills, but if more and more people think responsibly, we will be the wind.