Russia creates infrastructure to minimise climate risks

A new waste management system is taking shape in the country.

Photo by: bfk92 / iStock

In Russia, 76 temporary waste disposal sites in 26 regions are to close on 1 January 2023. However, in reality, only 10 such sites may cease to operate by the deadline, because the rest will have no place to store the waste generated. This was stated by Dmitry Kobylkin, chairman of the Duma Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Environmental Protection.

The parliamentarian spoke about the problem during the committee’s expert council dedicated to the issue.

In 2018, a law was passed allowing Russian regions to dispose of solid municipal waste at landfill sites that had started using them before the beginning of 2019, without proper documentation. These facilities were to be decommissioned from the beginning of 2023.

At the last meeting of the Duma environmental committee at the end of the spring 2022 session, the question was raised about the situation in the regions where the infrastructure for burying waste never appeared in light of the future closure of the temporary landfills.

As it turned out, little has changed over time, so in 21 regions of the Russian Federation, the elimination of landfills will simply mean that there is nowhere for rubbish to go, because there is still no capacity to redirect waste streams.

“Now only 10 can be closed, provided the volumes are redirected to other landfills. For 27 out of 66 sites, there are no design and estimate documentation, and for seven sites, there are no sites,” the newspaper quotes Dmitry Kobylkin as saying.

The parliamentarian specified that the most difficult situation is in the Omsk Region, where there are 17 temporary landfills at once. In the Sakhalin region, the planned facilities have not even been included in the territorial scheme. The authorities of the island region plan to do so only in November.

“But residents should not suffer from this, including due to the increase in tariffs — plans of some regions may provoke this,” Dmitry Kobylkin added.

The State Duma’s relevant committee insists that options for promptly solving the rubbish crisis in Russia’s regions must be proposed before the parliamentary hearings on rubbish reform, which will be held on September 28.

The problem of waste disposal is acute in the light of preserving the quality of the environment, among other things. Landfills, especially uncontrolled landfills, are a source of increased climate risk because they emit significant amounts of greenhouse gases. The impact of landfills on the climate is even higher than that of transport or industry, as landfill gas has a greater greenhouse effect.

Cover photo: zeljkosantrac / iStock