The mayors of Ukrainian cities need to learn how to act, as in civilized countries, where they even earn money on garbage

Recently, the mayor of Lviv, Andrei Sadovy suggested the creation of a polygon in the Chernobyl zone, on which it would be possible to take out garbage from the whole country. Such a backup dump for the mayors of cities, which can not overcome the problem with waste.

One of these days already in the capital city administration decided to “feel” the topic with the removal of garbage in the exclusion zone. For example, the deputy mayor of Klitschko, Pyotr Panteleyev, does not hide that the authorities of Kiev would like to export to the Chernobyl zone residues from incineration or recycling of garbage. Like, do not destroy garbage, and waste from it will still remain and you can send them to Chernobyl.

It is interesting, and what would be the ideas of local officials regarding the solution of the garbage problem in the event of the absence of the Chernobyl exclusion zone in Ukraine?

Depo.Kiev decided on the items to figure out why the country is so keen on the problem of recycling garbage and why no one decides it.

1. Chernobyl – not a place for garbage from all over the country

Many officials in Ukraine apparently forgot that last year the process of creation of the Chernobyl radiation-ecological biosphere reserve actually began.

Of course, in this reserve for sure will not enter industrial facilities such as the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, or various warehouses or shelters. Nevertheless, the process of creating a biosphere reserve has already been started, and therefore, officials can hold their dreams of storage in the exclusion zone of landfills for themselves.

In the zone there are already many wild animals that drink water from rivers. The landfill will poison underground waters, which then will poison the same rivers. Thus, animals will drink poisoned water. It is unlikely that in the Chernobyl zone they will create a safe landfill for burial of garbage, even if in the landfills near the towns and villages there is a real ecological catastrophe with existing dumps. Let’s recall the same Gribovichsky dump in Lviv, where a technogenic catastrophe took place last year.

2. The problem with garbage exists not only in Lviv or Kiev

In fact, the garbage problem goes far beyond Kiev and Lviv. Just in the last, this boil burst in itself last year and now garbage from the capital of Galicia “walks” almost throughout Ukraine. And it’s just impossible not to know about this. In Kiev, there are also very big problems with garbage. The main landfill, where the waste is stored from the capital, is located near the village of Podgortsy in the Obukhov district. And for a year now officials have only said that the possibilities of this range are already exhausted. But at the same time each next year this huge dump continues to take waste from Kiev.

It is unlikely that the regional centers, where tens of thousands of tons of garbage are produced every year, have a better situation than in the capital. This is confirmed by the fact that almost all the major cities of the country refused to accept Lviv garbage, they say, with their do not know what to do.

3. Officials are absolutely not interested in solving the junk issue

For example, in Kiev the idea of ​​building a garbage processing plant was nurtured by the mayor of Chernovetsky and it was back in 2006. Then the “space mayor” even signed an order to start developing a feasibility study for the plant. That is, this idea was reinforced even by an official document, but it still did not go beyond the talks. Then the capital authorities wanted to find an investor for the construction of a garbage processing plant.

After the tragedy, there was also a lot of talk at the Gribovička dump that Lviv authorities could have built a garbage recycling plant for a long time. However, we can assume that investors who were willing to invest in the construction of garbage processing factories, refused this, faced with the desire of our officials to have from all around. Even experts and some people’s deputies have already directly said on several occasions that corruption among officials is discouraging investors in the construction of garbage processing plants.

4. An open landfill is a source of permanent income

Black sorters bring their patrons a lot of money. For example, such sorters for many years worked at the same Gribovichsky test site. Last year, Kiev discovered black sorters at the main dump of Kiev – a training ground near the village of Podgortsy. On the outskirts of this village live Roma, who daily go to the landfill. Here they collect all waste that can be sent for recycling: plastic, glass, metal or cardboard with paper. Since dozens, if not hundreds, of black sorters are working at the site, they have a lot of money at the exit. And most importantly – this income is constant, because hundreds of tons of “fresh” garbage are carried daily from Kiev.

It is interesting that the management of the training ground in Pidhirtsi knows about the work of black archaeologists, but it seems that nothing can be done about it. Although by the rules of the test site, it is a regime object and people from the street are not allowed to enter. But business on garbage is much more important than any rules there. And this is another reason why Kiev does not build garbage processing plants. Someone will get it across the throat, because you do not want to lose a lot of money from the work of the black sorters.

5. Rubbish for developed countries is not a problem, but a way to earn

For example, in Singapore of garbage built a real island. This country has a very small area – about 700 square meters. Km, and lives on this territory more than five million people. Therefore, local authorities grab for any opportunity to increase the country’s territory. Already almost 20 years, a few kilometers from the shore of this island country are building an island of garbage. All waste that can not be recycled is first burned at a special plant. After that, only dust remains. Further from this mixture build an island. In the sea, special small dams are created, which delay dust dust. This, in turn, does not allow dust to “travel” by sea. Thus, the garbage is not washed out, but remains in place. In such tanks, they plan to discharge dust for another 20 years.

However, even now the island of garbage is quite large. Here grow grass and bushes, and therefore this area is no different from the natural islands.

But Sweden came up with how to turn the garbage problem into a solid plus. In this Scandinavian country, garbage is simply burned for a long time. Due to this, heat is generated for heating houses. Also, during the burning of garbage there is electricity, which is used by the population.

Five years ago, the Swedish authorities realized that by burning waste, even more energy could be produced. But the country itself could not give more garbage than it was at that time. It may seem strange enough, but Sweden decided to import waste from other countries. A lot of garbage came from Norway, which it was cheaper to export its own waste with additional payment than to process it by yourself.

Sweden in general can be considered a model in the treatment of waste. In addition to incineration of garbage, a sorting system has been established in this country. Even in kindergartens, children are beginning to learn how to sort garbage correctly. Near the houses or just on the streets are the containers, where one should drop certain types of waste. For example, metal goes to one tank, paper to another, glass to the third. Ideally, Swedes even tear labels from bottles of drinks to separately throw the bottle and paper separately.

All this together gives Sweden the opportunity to be one of the most ecological countries in the world, because there are practically no dumps.

Most Ukrainians can only dream about this. Firstly, the authorities of many cities do not work at all with the population in the direction of waste sorting. The reality is that many even have no idea why to sort the garbage. And in order to launch a large-scale program on separate waste collection, it is first necessary to prepare the population morally. Perhaps many people will have to “chew” several times, why bottles and skins from bananas need to be put in different tanks.

For example, in some parts of the city there are separate containers for sorted garbage. Here you can dump all waste, except food. In comparison with the experience of the West, where even paper and glass are thrown away separately, everything is much simpler in Kiev. But even such containers are only in some houses. In addition, not always from them in time take away the waste, and therefore the people of Kiev, who even sort the garbage, have to “spin”. Not everyone will agree to store cardboard and plastic bottles on the balcony while the special container will again be empty.

What can we say about other regions, even if in the capital in the treatment of waste is a real failure. Therefore, most city leaders on the rolled-up system simply turn the next hectares of living land into landfills.