Part III
Poland
Ogólnopolskie Towarzystwo Zagospodarowania Odpadów "3R" - Waste Prevention Association "3R"
Kraków, 18 January 1996
- ul. Slawkowska 12
- 31-914 Kraków
- Poland
- Phone: 48 12 222 264
- Fax: 48 12 222 264
The person and his function in the NGO
- Mr. Pawel Gluszynski - President and campaigner of the Waste Prevention Association "3R".
The NGO itself
The Waste Prevention Association was established
in 1992 and officially registered as a NGO in 1993. The main reason
for establishment was to fight against waste incinerators. In
the mean time, the goal of the NGO is to become involved with
other issues within waste management. The "3R" Waste
Prevention Association was founded by Greenpeace, the PKE, Green
Federation and Klub Gaja and a group of independent citizens,
who felt the need for a special waste prevention group, dealing
only with waste management issues.
Structure
Every three years a gathering of members choose the
Board of the NGO, whereas this Board chooses the employees of
the group, which are called campaigners. The members also form
a control authority, controlling the Board and to a certain extent
the campaigners. "3R" works through other NGOs, who
ask for information, knowledge, and small grants on a national
level.
Objective(s) / Goal(s)
Four different goals for the (near) future can be
distinguished:
- Help local NGOs and local authorities to improve their projects on waste issues;
- Finish the data base on waste management companies;
- Influence the process of Poland's new waste law, by preparing and defending an alternative law, which is under discussion now in Parliament;
- Continue campaigns against dangerous environmental investments in the country, for example, highways, PVC producing industries and waste incinerators.
Main areas of activity of the Waste Prevention Association "3R"
The main area of activity in "3R" are all
waste related topics and possible strategies. In general, activities
like collection and dissemination of information, education and
training are done on waste issues. Environmental monitoring,
protest actions and political activities such as commenting on
draft laws are done on waste topics of present interest.
Resources
- Human
- Three employees and two regular working volunteers
run the office and campaigns of the "3R" Waste Prevention
Association. The membership total is pretty small, about 48, but
it is not a goal of the organization to have a lot of members.
- Money
- The budget for 1995 was 72,000 DEM, this money comes
from funding organizations like the Heinrich Böll Stiftung,
the German Marshall Fund and the REC. The NGO earns some money
from their own activities, especially from the of selling publications.
Only a small amount of money comes from membership fees.
- Expertise
- Spoken languages in "3R" are Polish and
English. The expertise on environmental, in this case waste issues,
on the organizational and the strategical level is considered
high. The NGO also provides other local NGOs with legal assistance
and helps them to reach their goals.
- Access to information
- Available tools in the office are phone, fax and
computer(s). E-mail is available, together with full internet
access contact with other existing networks. The contacts with
the Ministry of the Environment are not very good, since this
Ministry is not very happy with "3R"'s comments. In
spite of this uneasy relation "3R" knows ways to get
the needed information more or less illegally. Good contacts exist
with the press, both newspapers and TV.
External Relations and intensity of the contact
The external relations of the Waste Prevention Association
are based on intensive cooperation. This is the case for cooperation
between the Voivodship government and the State Inspectorate for
Environmental Protection. As mentioned above, the relationship
with the Ministry of Environment is rather one of conflict and
denial. Low intensive contacts, on the level of information exchange
exist with environmental businesses dealings with waste issues.
Very high intensive cooperation exists with at least 45 local
Polish environmental NGOs, which are in close contact with "3R".
International cooperation is on a lower intensity, both with East-East
and West-East cooperation.
East-East Cooperation
The Waste Prevention Association "3R" cooperates
bilaterally with the Czech NGOs Deti Zeme and the Recycling Group
Prague, the Lithuanian At Gaia and the Hungarian NGO Humus. Some
contacts exist with Latvian and Estonian groups as well. Finally
"3R" is a member of the sustainable packaging network,
that was established on the initiative of Friends of the Earth,
The Netherlands. The cooperation is of course on waste issues
and consists of information and experience exchange and sometimes
common campaigns.
Advantages / Motivation
The main motivation for East-East cooperation is
the fact that similar projects especially by Western companies
and/or governments are planned for CEE countries. When for example
a company with unsound environmental plans is kicked out of Poland,
they will try to succeed in the Czech Republic. It is very important
to know what is going on in neighboring countries, because then
you can prepare yourself, and share information about the ways
to kick them out. In addition it is interesting to know more about
the situation in other CEE countries; what are they doing with
their waste and how they solve their problems.
Problems / Obstacles
Most NGOs from CEE prefer to cooperate with Western
NGOs, because they expect Western NGOs to have more information
and probably even more money to support them financially. In fact
this is not true, because Greenpeace has asked "3R"
for information. Then language is a problem, since not everybody
speaks English and Russian in far from the favorite. Nationalism
does not really play a role, only in the contact with Ukraine
sometimes is it felt that they are afraid to give information
about their own country. It is felt that they want to keep as
much as possible in their own hands.
Surplus Value / Results of East-East cooperation
It makes your job much easier if you know what to
expect and if you know which companies are coming with what are
their plans. Of course it is helpful for your own campaign if
the strategy of another NGO is known and can be reused. Besides
East-East cooperation is the only way to get information about
the waste management situation in other CEE countries, since governments
in CEE do not normally respond to information requests from "3R".
Necessary features of a NGO for East-East cooperation
The NGO needs to see the benefits of East-East cooperation
and should be willing and able to communicate. There needs to
be a common language, and NGOs have to consider partners from
CEE as useful source of information and feedback. Within the
CEE countries we have a common background. We share similar industrial
technologies and the same Western companies are trying to establish
roots throughout the CEE. From this point of view, similar solutions
throughout the CEE are possible, at least in the waste management
field. Of course working on the same topic is important way to
start cooperation.
Possible reasons for others not to start East-East cooperation
Normally NGOs look to the West to find partners
for cooperation, because of the expectation of getting more information
and/or money. Western NGOs are seen as more helpful than Eastern
groups. It is also hard to find NGOs in other countries working
on a similar topic or at the same level.
Future of East-East cooperative behavior of the NGO
One of the wishes for the future is to have a common
campaign on for example, packaging issues, maybe this will be
possible within the packaging network. The Waste Prevention Association
"3R" plans to continue their relationships with the
partners they have right now and to strengthen the cooperation
between them.
REC and East-East cooperation
"3R" applied and succeed in getting an
Earmarked Grant, so the REC and the REC procedures are well known.
We feel the REC should play a role in promoting East-East cooperation
in the future. Organizing meetings with groups of people working
on similar issues can help to bring NGOs together. A good mailing
list about who is doing what in CEE can also bring people to
contact others to get information or to share experiences. Until
now the REC has not been very successful in spreading enough easy-to-get
information about the environmental situation and activities in
CEE. The Bulletin (RECs magazine) is too general and not published
regularly enough, but of course, it is difficult to stimulate
NGOs and other people to give reliable and specific information
to such a bulletin. However, the development of East-East cooperation
doesn't depend only on the REC, but on the NGOs who should be
more open to East-East cooperation.
REC * PUBLICATIONS * BEYOND BORDERS - SIDE REPORT * POLAND
