Jun 06

Latvian Sortathlon Team Gains First Achievements

“My friends, the die has been cast … too long in the wrong types of containers.” What to do? Understanding that conscientious people were already sorting their waste – about 45% of them – and that others felt that waste sorting involved obstacles, hard work and a lack of preparation, we joined together with the Latvian Green Point and Deep White to decide that a new approach was needed. There is only one area which naturally turns the aforementioned shortcomings into positive things – sports! Then obstacles become a challenge, rules seem self-evident, and changing one’s own self provides satisfaction. As Viktorija would put it, “have you ever heard a basketball player whingeing about the basket being too far away and demanding that it be brought closer?” Latvia’s Waste Sorting-Thon is a new sport, and as is the case with the biathlon, this is a sport in which there are two disciplines and two birds can be killed with one stone.

Latvijas Zaļais punkts / Uzmanību - vislatvijas šķiratlona starts! from DDB Latvia on Vimeo.

It is clear that in addition to the adventure and the game, people need purely practical support, and that is where coaches come in. We chose the best Sorting-Thon coach of all, Viktorija, who was a true victor from her birth. We trust that she will help us to put everything in the right place in terms of waste containers so that we can be at the top of the European pile when it comes to the Sorting-Thon. Right now data from Eurostat mean nothing good for Latvia. We’re in 18^th place in Europe when it comes to waste sorting, we’re even behind our nearest neighbours. Is that good? No, it is not. We found three people who wanted to sort their waste and turned them over to Viktorija. Six videos were produced to show how to train waste sorters. Viktorija decided to move from containers to something more, and at the opening of the All-Latvian Sortathlon she organised a relay race for Latvia’s football team and for a group of Latvian politicians. The football players won, but Viktorija decided to train them separately, because sports are sports, and no one cares whether it is football, basketball or the Sorting-Thon. The main thing is to find the right container, basket or goal into which to throw things.

The video sessions were not enough for Viktorija and her ideas, so sometimes she also organises memes on Facebook to share pointed advice with a not particularly pointed sense of humour. She produces GIF images of training processes and is seeking to be declared the best Sorting-Thon coach of all with the dance hashtag #VIKAKANDIDAT. What more can we say? There has been undeniable interest in the Sorting-Thon and Viktorija. The project has reached 588,000 people, 273,00 have watched the videos, and 6,404 have become actively involved. Will Viktorija manage to ensure real activities in this regard? That will sort everything out.