European way of life starts with sorting the waste

The weekend before last, an experiment on separate trash collecting techniques long promised by city authorities began for 3,500 Kyivans. Due to the financial support from the Danes, every participant of the project was supplied with a slop-pail and a set of waste packages. Additional dustbins were placed in the local dumpsites: for paper, glass, and plastic bottles. The participants received detailed instructions on the proper and ecologically conscious treatment of waste. During the next six months, they will sort the waste “by fractions” and put it into the corresponding dustbins. They promise that the volume of the waste will be thoroughly monitored. Every kind of waste will be weighed before removing, while the housing offices taking part in the experiment will report their findings to the project coordinators on a regular basis. For those willing to keep living by the old rules instead of minimizing waste volume by taking the time to sort it, there is another option, a mixed dustbin. It is also planned on being used as a certain indicator of ecological consciousness.

According to Natalia Lubinets, who is in charge of the experiment at the Housing Office No. 512, only four of the residents of ten buildings refused to carry out the new functions. They categorically claimed that this is a job for janitors, and that they have neither the time nor the will to think about where to put a plastic bottle. However, the rest of the residents, to the contrary of city authorities’ expectations, were even pleased to take part in the experiment. Liudmyla Dashyvets, living in 22, Vyshhorodska St, is happy that “finally we will live like they do abroad.” In Germany the dumps don’t “stink,” Liudmyla says, and every child there knows that the waste is to be sorted. Other “pioneers” voiced similar opinions. Olena Brechak, for instance, says that she had been separating glass from plastic and paper for a long time — just for her own convenience. She couldn’t understand why city authorities did not start to solve the waste problem long before. In her words, it is obvious that by sorting the waste they would get additional money for the city budget, create new jobs, and, without doubt, improve Kyiv’s ecological situation.

Germany represents a vivid example of this. Though sometimes people joke about the Germans being too concentrated on sorting the waste, the results of their consciousness in this respect are obvious. Utilizing and recycling the waste have become a separate branch with a yearly turnover of euro 70 billion. This branch involves 240,000 employees, and enterprises fiercely compete for the opportunity to participate in the “trash business.” Simultaneously, tests indicate that every year the atmosphere becomes clearer. However, it took them about a decade to reach this state. The authorities held information campaigns in every town, persuading their population regarding the benefits of their mission. Today, nobody in Germany objects to the fact that one has to pay for removing and recycling the waste or against administrative sanctions in cases of rules violations.

Ukrainians are long aware that the heating value of unsorted waste is twice as low as of sorted waste. Kyiv alone produces over 10,000 cubic meters of firm waste. The existing dumps do not meet European standards, and a significant part of the waste goes to illegal dumps. For example, at the Energy incinerator plant, they claim that only one-fourth of metal waste in Kyiv comes to them, though it is common knowledge that in the zones with high pollution, the number of tuberculosis cases is 49% more, cancer 31%, and circulatory system diseases 54%.

The waste revolution in the Ukrainian capital promises to be a success. The “bribery” side of this policy should also bear fruit. Every month, when the new dust packages are delivered to the experiment participants, they will be asked questions on the ecology theme, a correct answer to which will increase their chance to win prizes when the experiment is over. Meanwhile, janitors collect complaints and suggestions from those sorting the waste. So far, there was only one complaint at the Housing Office No. 512: one lady said that the acting scheme is too simple and that there should also be special containers for organic waste, as they do it in the West.

INCIDENTALLY

In the next two or three years, a waste recycling plant is planned to be constructed on the Crimean south coast, between Yalta and Alushta. Two projects are being conducted: one American, envisaging mechanical recycling without incinerating the waste, and the other European, characterized by more profound recycling, but envisaging partial incineration, reports Interfax Ukraine. To study investment projects for implementing innovation technologies in this field, a commission was created, headed by Vice Premier Volodymyr Shkaberny. The decision of the Crimean government regulates delivering the finance allotted by Ukrekokomresursy Company for collecting, sorting, transporting, and utilizing waste packing. Fifty percent of this money is to be spent on implementing the Program for Waste Treatment and Implementing New Technologies in the Sphere of Utilizing Waste Packing, and the other 50% on securing separate collecting, recycling, and utilizing waste packing in those cities and rayons in the Crimea (in the form of investment projects).