Siberian activists have reportedly sent packages of trash to four State Duma lawmakers and one senator to highlight the extent of Russia’s garbage crisis.
Anger over unsustainable waste management in Russia has grown over the past year as the country slid into an acute garbage crisis. Earlier this month, activists in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk demanded that their local administration postpone the so-called national “trash reform,” which tasked regions with choosing operators to collect waste starting Jan. 1 and is expected to increase the costs of garbage collection.
“Take this trash and smell the native garbage of Krasnoyarsk,” activist Yevgeniya Yelizariyeva is heard saying in a YouTube video published Sunday.
In the video, Yelizariyeva is seen packing boxes with contents from a trash bin and, at one point, winces at the bad smell.
“Why did the people go and vote for you?” she is heard saying. “You need to be chased away with a broom.”
The parcels were reportedly addressed to four Duma deputies representing Krasnoyarsk, including deputy chairman of the defense committee Yury Shvytkin, as well as Senator Andrei Klishas.
Yelizariyeva called on fellow Krasnoyarsk residents to send trash parcels to federal lawmakers “and fill the Duma with our garbage.”
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