28th March 2011 Bucharest, Romania
We did it Romania!
This Saturday was a special day for the city of Bucharest and for other places around the country that joined the “Let’s do it Romania” eco-initiative. A great opportunity to help our hometown get a facelift, the clean-up campaign gathered an impressive number of enthusiasts, including five British Embassy staff (photo below).
Check our Facebook account for more photos!
Armed with sturdy rubber gloves, boots, and heavy-duty clothes, we went to a site up north in Baneasa forest, near the roadway, about 30 km from the city. A perfect place for a picnic, as we discovered much to our surprise, but clearly one that other Bucharest dwellers have spotted long before us. There must have been lots of outdoorsy activities going on in that area judging by the 32 bags of trash we managed to collect in about a couple of hours: plenty of bottles, food packaging, bricks, worn-out clothing, tires… Someone must have thought this was a good place for property development…
The local forest man told us that he and his team had to clean up the area weekly but the volume of trash generated clearly was more than they could cope with. So he was very pleased to see how quickly we’ve turned the place around and in return invited us to a nearby pheasant farm. Maybe next time, we thought.
But this event is worth a next time. We gave up roughly half a day from our weekend to clean up other people’s mess but it felt super good in the end.
In retrospect, I think the British Embassy has been genuinely committed to preserving the environment and making a difference for the city we live in. Another piece of accomplishment that I want to highlight is our first barter with a local company, Logos Promo, which has produced British Embassy branded pens made from recycled paper. They look great and didn’t cost us anything. So thank you Valentin Bucurica and the team!
And, in the spirit of bilingualism, here’s my thanks for Logos Promo in Romanian: Mulţumim domnului Valentin Bucurică şi echipei sale pentru pixurile din material reciclabil care arată grozav!