A plant to turn waste into fuel and building materials will be built near St. Petersburg

The facility will be able to recycle 60% of incoming waste into recyclable materials, which will significantly reduce emissions and have a positive impact on the climate.

Photo by: Sergey Fadeichev / TASS

A modern waste recycling complex Volkhonka will appear near St. Petersburg. It will be erected on the basis of the former plant MPBO-2 in the suburbs in the east of the Northern capital, TASS reports referring to the press service of the FAU Glavgosekspertiza Rossii.

The reconstruction project includes two stages. During the first stage, the existing crushing building will be reconstructed and modernized, turning the building into a waste sorting unit, and a building for receiving solid municipal waste will be built.

At the second stage, the company will have a site for processing bulky municipal waste, a wastewater treatment plant for storm water, a warehouse for the finished product and other facilities.

At the same time, a building for composting organic waste will be put into operation. It will then be processed into man-made earth — an inert material used in landfill recultivation and landfill isolation.

According to the project, about 60% of the waste arriving at the complex will be recycled into RDF-fuel and techno-soil. The recyclable materials generated in the sorting process will make up 15% of the total waste. Secondary materials will be transferred to third-party recyclers to produce new products.

The share of unrecyclable waste at the facility must not exceed 25% of the total amount of incoming MSW. This waste will be removed and buried at a landfill in the Leningrad region.

The developer of the Volkhonka complex is Nevsky Ecological Operator, a regional operator for solid waste management in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region.

It should be noted that the work to improve the system of waste management is carried out in many regions of Russia. In the Irkutsk region it is planned to introduce separate waste collection in the settlements located on the shores of Lake Baikal from 2025.

Residents and businesses in the Irkutsk region produce about 22,000 tonnes of solid municipal waste every year in one district alone. At the same time, there is only one landfill in the region, which will be closed down and reclaimed in the near future.

There are plans to launch a pilot project on waste management in the hard-to-reach territories of Yamal. In addition, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the RF and the regional authorities of the Urals Federal District will consider the issue of waste collection and removal in shift camps. Responsibilities for waste management in such camps may be delegated to companies that establish camps of this type.

Cover photo: Moscow Region Governor’s Press Service