In September the traditional international action “Clean nature from waste” takes place. “It is one of the basic problems of our country, as volumes of household and industrial waste increase every year,” the head of the toxic program of Greenpeace Russia, Alexei Kiseleyv, states. “No measures on stabilization of this growth are taken. Today only big territory is saving Russia, as well as business which try to use this waste effectively. Thank God, there are businessmen who want to do it, and thank God, they manage to gain some profit from it. Talks about fairytale benefits from recycling are a myth. It is hard work under administrative and technological pressure existing in this sphere.”
Tatyana Puzanova, the scientific secretary of the scientific-methods Council on Ecology
Waste in Russia is a real global problem. My friend shot a movie “Terra Incognita: the Moscow region.” I suggested she should fly over the Moscow region and see how many unapproved trash dumps are situated there. There are plenty of dumps – the majority of them are unapproved – around any megacity. It is obvious that many problems appear which are connected with soil pollution, water pollution, and human health. It is not a secret that the Great Pacific Garbage Patch drifts in the Pacific Ocean – three huge patches of plastic. This patch is a bit smaller than the Mediterranean Sea. It is a topic problem not only of our country, but of the whole world.
Alexander Semenets, the deputy director of the Ecological Security Department of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine
52 million cubes of household waste are formed in Ukraine annually. We are at the initial stage of launching a separate collection. The problem is about the launching of the separate collection of household waste. Separate collections are thought to be the most expensive. When we have got valuable materials from household wastes – waste paper, glass, polymers, and so on – it becomes commercial products, and benefits might be gained. The task is to allocate money for the separate collections of waste. Realizing it, we have launched separate collections of waste in 130 towns and cities. In 7 cities we have waste sorting assembly lines. Such lines are being constructed in 18 cities. Today about 300 000 hryvnas are being invested. We realize that the majority of household waste is wraps and packing. Thus, we are developing a bill on packing and wraps. We base it on the European experience, and at the moment the bill is being agreed by central executive bodies. If our lawmakers agree with the ministry’s opinion, we are ready to launch the European experience in this sphere.
Zoryana Mishchuk, the executive director of the All-Ukrainian Ecological Civil Organization
There are two key problems – the absence of culture and the absence of infrastructure. These are two factors which influence the situation with waste in Ukraine, and the situation is awful. More than 90% of all waste, unfortunately, are buried. That is why the territory of approved and unapproved dumps is equal to a square of a small state. Considering the growth of waste, i.e. we throw more and more every year, the problem increases quickly. The dumps which cover the huge territory of the country, unfortunately, don’t correlate with ecological standards, i.e. they threaten the population, waters, and other natural resources. There is a problem of reclamation, the economic problem of possible benefits, and a big environmental problem. The volumes of investments mentioned by my colleague are a drop in the ocean. In fact we have no waste recycling industry in the country, as well as conditions for its development. There are some state national projects. We hope they will be implemented and become a motivation for multiplication of this experience. However, today the situation is far from perfect.
Lilit Saakian, the head of the environmental department in the Center of Ecologic Noosphere Research
There are visible and invisible problems. Visible are degradation of landscapes, garbage, deforestation, desertisation, and so on. But the biggest factors of ecologic risk are invisible. First of all, it is a misbalance of chemical elements which leads to pollution of all components of the environment. The attitude to ecological problems should be adequate. In Armenia we lack it. As for laws, it is well-known that a good law doesn’t mean good ecology. If laws exist, they should be fulfilled. There are social problems: everybody talks about environment, it is an advantage; but a disadvantage that non-professionals talk about it. If somebody knows what waste, a tree, and a forest are, he is thought to be an expert. And it is not only the Armenian problem.
