A governmental regulation on selective garbage collection in St.
Petersburg was issued on April 28, 2004. A complex programme to
introduce new garbage management plan in the city and 100 grounds
for selective garbage collection were to be developed by last
September. By July 2005 there should have been 375 of them.
In reality only about 80 grounds in the city are equipped with
special containers. There is still no integrated city program to
introduce selective collection. Only one automobile plant sends its
secondary resources for recycling and only thanks to the enthusiasm
of its leaders.Alexander Agurenkov, specialist of the city's
administration committee for management of housing resources, in
charge of enforcement of the governmental regulation, assured
residents of the Northern capital that "selective garbage
collection would be introduced in the city by the end of 2004", and
412 specially equipped containers were bought. The whereabouts of
the rest 252 containers remain a mystery. Greenpeace's attempts to
meet Mr Agurenkov and participate in the elaboration of this
selective collection program so necessary for the city failed.
Instead of taking the only reasonable way of civilized solution
of the problem the city's authorities try to introduce the
incineration technology. Even the most ecologically sound
incinerator emits a mixture of dangerous substances into the
atmosphere, dioxins being the most hazardous. A molecule of dioxin
may cause cancer. Incineration destroys the resources which might
have been used in industry but are taken again from the
environment.
Waste becomes garbage (unwanted substance) only when glass,
paper, food waste are put into one container. Such substance is to
be buried at a dump. If waste is sorted out first in the garbage
bin, about 70% of it can be recycled and reused. According to
opinion polls, about half of St Petersburg's population are ready
to sort out their garbage. In practice, when special containers are
installed, 25% of the population start selective garbage
collection, even without special information campaigns.
"Our experiment on selective garbage collection in two St
Petersburg's districts turned out to be very successful", says Igor
Babanin, coordinator of the effective resources management project.
"The city should adopt the existing experience, and the city
officials support us by word of mouth, but in practice all our
suggestions are ignored. If their methods of domestic waste
management do not change, we'll have to rename the known date into
the International Day of Environmental Protection…from
Bureaucracy".