Karny Kopciuch: already more than 5, 000 applications from all over Poland

The count of reports of polluters from residents has already exceeded 5,000. In its fourth year of operation, the Karny Kopciuch is still an important tool for Poles in the fight for clean air.

5,000 notifications, 3,000 summons to stop poisoning the air

The Social Action Karny Kopciuch, initiated and organised by the tuPolska Media Group from Rybnik, was launched in November 2019. Since then, the residents of our country have sent in more than 5,000 reports about buildings with smelly furnace. And new ones are coming down every day.

– Every submission is considered in three steps: education, control, stigma. In the first year, we review submissions for reasonableness, completeness. By this route, we qualified more than 3,000 applications for further processing. We sent building owners a summon, prepared by a Law Firm Jarosław Reck, cooperating with Karny Kpociuch, to stop polluting the air, together with educational materials about the harmful effects of smog on life and health and information about possible sources of funding to replace heat sources with ecological ones. We do not send summons to homes in the West Sub-region of the Silesian Voivodeship, instead, we report the address to the municipal police or (if there is no police station in the municipality) to the mayor in order to inspect the fireplace. We then receive feedback with the results of the measures taken – informs Tomasz Raudner, coordinator of the Karny Kpociuch.

450 requests for administrative procedures

The second step is activated when a repeat report is received about a furnace that is already in the database of Karny Kopciuch. This involves sending the Fundacja 360! from Rybnik, a request to initiate administrative proceedings.

– Then along with the Foundation, we fight to have the mayor of the polluted municipality order the replacement of the heat source in the polluter’s home. We have so far qualified more than 450 addresses for the second stage – says the coordinator.

As a result, more than 100 administrative proceedings have been initiated so far, resulting in 23 cases of boiler replacement.

Third – the last step – is an interactive map showing the polluters. In the event of a negative decision by the mayor and in the event that we receive another report concerning a given address, we will place it on the map of Poland. The third step has not yet been implemented.

It is worth mentioning that the organisers do not make any money from the Karny Kopciuch. However, they do raise funds for legal services, correspondence and sticker printing.

– Which is why we are asking everyone, who cares about the cleanliness of the air we breathe to donate to the collection we have launched at zrzutka.pl. At the same time, following signals from residents who do not support electronic payments, we have introduced the possibility of donating money stationary at a bank or post office – says Tomasz Rauder.

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You can find out more about the activities of the Karny Kopciuch at www.karnykopciuch.pl and social media:

Facebook: facebook.com/KarnyKopciuch
Instagram: instagram.com/karnykopciuch

The organiser of the Karny Kpociuch is the tuPolska media group.

The campaign is supported by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Katowice and the Business HUB magazine.