Every year Russia produces 28 million tons of household waste
and if the contents of the Russians' trash bins are loaded onto
cargo cars, the train will stretch for 10 thousand kilometers,
which is the distance from Moscow to Vladivostok. Given the
promised growth of the gross national product at 3% to 9%, the
total amount of waste in the country will also be growing by 1.5
million tons annually.
Russia has developed draft laws "On Packaging" and "On Secondary
Raw Materials" that can help change the existing waste treatment
system to a system that will allow for recycling of a major part of
waste produced. The Russian Government can turn these drafts into
operational laws. For instance, the law "On Packaging" introduces
the notion of hypothecation value and manufacturer's responsibility
for requisitioning and recycling of used packaging. The law "On
Secondary Raw Materials" covers all other types of waste.
As a rule, to solve the household waste issue governments of
Russian cities and provinces suggest construction of costly waste
incinerator plants. However, existing facilities (keeping in mind
that construction of an incinerator takes as long as two years)
will hardly catch up with only the annual 1.5 million tons surplus
of waste. The bulk of waste without this surplus will have to go to
special dumping grounds. Which is why incinerators will not only
fail to solve the existing waste issues but will also increase air
pollution by emitting high amounts of highly toxic pollutants.
Greenpeace estimates show that costs of the "complex technology"
of waste treatment including separate collection, sorting, selling
of secondary raw materials and waste composting will be as minimum
three times lower than costs of incineration. Moreover, the
"complex technology" does not produce waste with the hazard class
higher than that of waste before incineration. Implementation of
the "complex waste treatment technology" will create twice as many
jobs as household waste incineration.
Greenpeace demands that the Russian Government:
enact as soon as possible the existing draft laws "On Packaging"
and "On Secondary Raw Materials" that impose the manufacturer's
responsibility for produce after its term of use has expired.
impose a ban on household waste incineration and limit dumping
of recyclable types of waste.
"Incineration proponents claim that incineration cuts amounts of
waste by tenfold. Here they make a big mistake, though," says
Aleksey Kiselyov, head of the Toxic Campaign of Greenpeace Russia.
"If we compare incineration to ramming of waste at a dumping area
with a bulldozer, the amount of ash will be only three times
smaller. Besides, incineration is 7 times more expensive than
separate collection with waste sorting and consequent
recycling".
For more information, please, contact Greenpeace Russia at:
+7 (495) 926 5045 - Aleksey Kiselyov and Elena Surovikina.
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