It is not ruled out that in the next few years Lvov’s garbage will finally cease to be scattered across Ukrainian cities and villages, and Lviv itself will be freed from sewage. The EBRD is ready to provide a loan for the construction of a garbage processing plant.
Is the garbage factory a Potemkin village?
The European Bank for Development and Reconstruction (EBRD) has begun selection of companies that will take part in the implementation of the first phase of the project “Solid Waste of Lviv” worth 35 million euros. The project will provide for the reclamation of the Gribovička dump and the introduction of sorting and composting facilities in Lviv. The tender for the purchase of goods, works and services for the project “Solid Waste of Lviv” will be announced in the fourth quarter of this year. The EBRD has already begun a search.
On May 29, 2016, a fire broke out on the Lviv municipal solid waste landfill site, and on May 30, during the liquidation of the fire, a garbage landslide resulted in the death of three firefighters and an environmentalist of the Zbyranka. Due to a fire and a landslide, the polygon was closed, and Lviv is forced to export its waste to the landfills of other cities and regions. The city itself was on the verge of an ecological catastrophe. Other settlements forbade importing Lviv garbage to them, as a result of which they took it illegally, sometimes simply throwing it along the road. The Lvov authorities have been trying to build a garbage processing plant for a decade, however, then it did not have money for it, then the local authorities of the Lviv region refused to give a plot for building.
In trouble, acting mayor of Lviv, Andrei Sadovy is a political opponent of the current government, which is trying to take advantage of the moment to discredit the city authorities. Prime Minister Vladimir Groisman at a government meeting accused Sadovoy of sabotaging the construction of the plant. “I was in Vinnitsa city head from 2006 to 2014. I, like the mayor, had exactly the same problem with the same dump, I myself negotiated with residents of the surrounding villages and towns without the help of unauthorized persons. blockade of the dump.In the end, we have invested a little money, we have made a businesslike move, we have made one of the best garbage recycling complexes in Vinnitsa today, “Groysman said, referring in absentia to Sadovoy.
However, as the journalists of the TV channel “24” later found out, the sorting line at the Vinnitsa garbage landfill is a Potemkin village for official delegations. In the rest, not receiving days, it does not work, and trash is sorted by unknown people who resell it to resellers.
Ukrainian realities
According to the president of the Ukrainian Analytical Center Oleksandr Okhrimenko, garbage is a feeder for local authorities, so it is beneficial for her not to do anything in the field of waste processing. After all, if you build a garbage processing plant, then no one will pay bribes for the disposal of garbage.
“The Lviv garbage problem” is a consequence of corruption.Although before the change of power (in 2014 – Ed.) In the same Lviv there were “looking”, who, though profiting from this communal sphere, did solve this problem. money, but they do not want to decide anything, “Okhrimenko said. All over the world local authorities earn money by recycling garbage, they even import it, because modern technologies can provide deep processing and bring significant profits.
However, in Ukraine there are almost no modern production facilities for garbage processing. But there are a lot of garbage dumps, where organic and inorganic wastes are stored. They occupy up to 7% (!) Of the country’s territory, while more than half of the landfills are in an emergency condition. Incineration plants are in Kiev, Dnipro, Kharkov, but only one works – the Kiev plant “Energia”. As for modern waste-processing plants, in Ukraine such is only in the city of Rivne. And he was idle for two years and earned only recently.
Despite the fact that the plant is able to process 80% of the city’s waste, the city authorities prefer to take out a third of the garbage to the dump, while the company itself (built in 2013 for 7 million euros) works at a loss. In Ukraine there are 22 sorting lines that select waste for recycling, there are several enterprises that produce biogas from waste polygons. Thus, more than 90% of garbage in Ukraine is stored in garbage dumps, polluting the environment and creating a threat of new fires. According to experts, the main reason for this situation is extremely low tariffs for disposal of domestic waste – 50-60 UAH per tonne for the country.
For comparison, burning tons of garbage at the plant “Energy” will cost 87 UAH. At illegal dumps, the burial will be generally ridiculous 30-40 UAH. In EU countries, the disposal of one ton of waste costs 50-60 euros, while processing will cost 2 times cheaper.
Loan for garbage – money on the wind?
The EBRD will give half of the money for the purchase of the plant, the other half of the cost should be paid by the city and the state budget. While it is not known, under what percent is given a loan and how much it will cost Ukrainian taxpayers. Transition from storage of waste to their processing will mean an automatic rise in price of receipts for housing and communal services payments, which already soared to the skies and could not afford to most citizens. By the way, the Lvov authorities have already announced an increase in the rent for the townspeople, which was explained by the need to increase the cost of waste disposal and preparation for the construction of the plant.
Within the framework of the “European choice”, the population in the future is expected to face massive fines for improper storage of garbage, a duty to sort out the garbage, pay the cost of disposing of each purchased product, and penalties for the use of incorrect packaging. There is a fear that these “European rules” will be introduced to enrich officials, and the “European” incineration plant will be the same profanation for official delegations, as well as the “Groysman marshalling yard” near Vinnitsa.