Environmental caravan, with 14 bicyclists and artists from Cirkusfera, in last 5 days had crossed 400 km, visited 6 towns in Serbia and delivered to citizens of 3,000 bags for waste separation.
On Friday, June 29, Green initiative and Green list of Serbia celebrated a finish of environmental bicycling caravan at Town square in Backi Petrovac, with a with a cabaret performed by Cirkusfera, and a music concert by Ticu and White city massive, within Get Planet Wise! Recycle campaign. Environmental caravan, that started from Gornji Milanovac on June 25, with 14 bicyclists (7 girls and 7 boys) and artists from Cirkusfera, visited 6 towns in Serbia, on a 400 km long road. During 5 days caravan moved from Gornji Milanovac via Valjevo, Sabac and Obrenovac to Indjja and Backi Petrovac.
Participants of the caravan, including the youngest participant with almost 18 years, and the oldest participant with 43 years, passed the environmental messages of the importance of recycling and called citizens, organizations, institutions, and recycling businesses to engage more actively in the collection of recyclable materials.
In each city that they visited, bicyclists delivered bags for waste separation to the citizens, with the internet address of the Recycling Address book, a unique database of recycling islands in Serbia, on Green initiative website. Together with bicyclists, artists from Cirkusfera entertained the citizens with the environmental performances. In gatherings of artists and bicyclists in all the cities visited by the caravan participated nearly 2,000 people.
Caravan started from Gornji Milanovac, marked by a presentation of items of waste in the yard of the kindergarten “Sunce” and environmental performances of artists from the association “Cirkusfera”. On their way to Valjevo bicyclists visited the monument of Prince Milos Obrenovic in Takovo, recalling once again the question of what monuments our civilization is leaving behind, if we do not properly take care of waste. On the way through West Serbia and Srem caravan encountered a number of illegal landfills, but also individual waste collectors. Bicyclists have also noticed that the villages in municipality Pecinci were covered with containers for collection of used plastic packaging. In the final stage of the caravan bicyclists visited regional landfill in Indjija which is being constructed.
Up to 15 local bicyclists joined the caravan in each of the cities caravan had visited, and together they exceeded certain stages of the caravan. In Novi Sad caravan met with a group Novi Sad Critical Mass (a local monthly event that promotes bicycling as a fun and healthy means of transportation).
This is a third eco-bike Get Planet wise! Recycle caravan that this year is realized within Green initiative activities, focused on stimulation of primary selection on local and national level in Serbia. Realization of this year’s bike caravan is being implemented in partnership with Balkan Community Initiatives Fund (BCIF), Young Researchers of Serbia, Institute for Sustainable Communities (ISC), and with the financial assistance of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), supported as well by the Telenor Foundation and Dutch Embassy.
Sending environmental messages to citizens, on importance of recycling and primary selection, in first two years, bicyclist caravan visited over 20 towns in Serbia, more than 40 bicyclists participated in it, and it crossed 1,200 km.
