President of Bashkortostan: “We don’t manage waste, we just store it”

About two million tons of domestic waste is collected in Bashkortostan annually and at that this figure grows by 10% every year on average. The President RB Rustem Khamitov reported about it on September 25 at the meeting, devoted to problems and prospects in development of waste recycling.

“We don’t manage waste, we just store it. Our forests are full of garbage. More than two thousand hectares of land are reserved for junkyards. There are 43 landfills and about 2500 junkyards in the Republic and at that the number and the quality of these landfills stand beneath criticism. We can’t increase the number of dumps anymore” – the President RB stated. At present time less than 15% of domestic waste is subject to recycling in the Republic and it is of no surprise since the recycling business is found in embryo state and economic non-attractiveness of such business is the main reason.

As the head of the Republic said, about 20 various offers concerning waste recycling have been registered in Bashkortostan since 2010. At the same time none of these projects has been carried through.

At present time 124 enterprises work in sphere of waste recycling in the Republic but the majority of them are busy just with waste collection.

“We have to start construction of landfills with waste sorting lines. Besides, the already working landfills should be equipped with such lines too. At that construction of recycling plants can be expedient only if their capacity exceeds 100 thousand tons of waste per year. The region needs as minimum as three such plants now” – the acting Minister of nature management and ecology RB Olga Lazdina reported.