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Anyone who gets nothing but moral satisfaction for their work will inevitably do it poorly. The situation will only change if people are motivated to sort their rubbish. There are positive incentives to do so. For example, the residents of an apartment building can organise themselves and increase the amount of recyclables they collect, and use the proceeds to improve their courtyard. In this case even general money can be a good motivation.
What measures can encourage Russian consumers and producers to behave responsibly? I can say for sure that fines do not play a fundamental role here. The solution to this problem requires a well-developed infrastructure. Moving to a closed loop system, where waste is a raw material but there are no recycling facilities, will not work.
It is important that recycling is not just about separating the waste into fractions, but also about making products. Plastic can be used to make plastic threads and textiles for insulation, glass can be used in glass factories, and pyrolysis waste can be lithified to make stone. In this case, no one would be lucky to throw the waste into the forest, because it could be sold profitably.
As for sanctions, I don’t think they will have any fundamental impact on the waste reform process in our country. Of course there are some mechanisms that are purchased from Western countries, such as conveyor sorting lines, shredders, bag splitters. But much of it can be manufactured by Russian industry itself.
Previously, the market for waste processing equipment in the country did not develop due to a lack of demand, as it was possible to purchase foreign analogues, but now the situation has changed. In addition, there are technologies where Russian companies are fully self-sufficient, such as pyrolysis.
Nevertheless, the biggest risk of sanctions is cutting Russia off from scientific and technological progress. It is impossible to invent everything ourselves. The main intellectual forces are not concentrated in the “third world”. Therefore, there is nowhere to wait for help.
Cover photo: kiwisoul / iStock
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