Name: Yevgen Tryhub
Age: 29
Education: B.A. in physical education from Glukhiv National Pedagogical University
Profession: Krolevets city council member and recycling activist
Did you know? Tryhub took part in the New Leaders civic initiative, made it to the semi-finals, and presented his project on Ukrainian television channel ICTV.
Yevhen Tryhub wasn’t always interested in garbage. But that all changed when he began working as a public amenities inspector for the city council of Krolevets, his hometown of 23,000 people around 250 kilometers northeast of Kyiv in Sumy Oblast.
Part of his job was planning and implementing the removal of garbage from neighborhoods that lacked an organized removal system.
That experience led Tryhub to set up the non-profit called Rodinne Misto in 2015, which began working to clean up trash in Krolevets. It installed trash cans in the city, and began cleaning up parks and recreational sites in the city.
“Soon the result was clear,” says Tryhub. Krolevets was cleaner, and Tryhub and his colleagues had managed to bring proper trash collection to the city.
Next, Tryhub and his organization began setting up recycling bins for plastic across the city. Today, there are already 16 of them. Twice a month, they collect the plastic from the containers.
Since late 2017, they have given part of the plastic to a local factory that employs people with visual impairments. That factory breaks down the plastic products and turns them into paving slabs that can be used to make sidewalks or patios. The slabs can hold up to six tons and have a life of up to 50 years.
Tryhub believes that projects like these and recycling in general have great potential in Ukraine — they just need a boost. And he has shown that they can be implemented not just in Kyiv, but also in regional cities.
Because the Ukrainian authorities — both national and local — pay little attention to the issue of recycling, a lot of people lack information, Tryhub says. Once you explain to them why sorting garbage and recycling are important, he has found that they are often receptive.
“We fought for people’s minds for two years,” Tryhub says. He and his supporters explained why recycling was necessary, gave speeches, and held lots of meetings with the public. Once the factory began turning the plastic into paving slabs, they were able to show people how plastic from the dump could have a second life.
To advance the fight for ecologically clean practices, Tryhub ran for Krolevets city council in 2015, and won.
Being on the council gives him a useful platform to influence public policy and opinion. And while previously Tryhub was limited to the resources of his nonprofit, now he can use state financing to advance ecologically clean practices in Krolevets.
And Tryhub says his work is far from over: “My task is to make sure that there is cleanliness and order in the cities of Ukraine,” he says.
