On 7 June 2024, the final day of the finals of the 8th season of the project "3.2.1.Start!" took place. Our university took an active part in the project, introducing separate waste collection and plastic sorting. In the season finale the teams of 11 universities presented their vision of this problem, presented their projects and shared their experience. EKTU team was represented by: project supervisor, senior lecturer Olga Petrova, Valeria Parubchishina, 2nd year student, activist of the eco-club "Clover", and Vyacheslav Petrov, college student. During the whole period of the project implementation, EKTU collected and recycled more than 4.5 tonnes of plastic. In addition, a lot of work was done to train students in separate collection. The result of all efforts was the 2nd place and a prize - plastic recycling equipment.

The project "3.2.1.Start!" is aimed at supporting youth initiatives to collect and properly sort plastic. It was initiated by Coca-Cola Icecek Kazakhstan (Coca-Cola Almaty Bottlers) and G-Global Coalition for Green Economy and Development, which is a leading public organisation promoting the principles of sustainable and green growth in Kazakhstan.

For EKTU, winning this competition is the result of the joint efforts of all employees and students who supported the project activities, actively participated in separate collection, clean-up days, Challenges, campaigning and educational activities. Special thanks go to the cleaning staff of the Infrastructure Development Department, without whose hard work it would have been impossible to establish active plastic collection on campus. The university also thanks its partners, EcoVostokLeader, for their help with the collection and removal of the collected plastic.