In Ukraine, only 4% of the total waste is processed

Ukraine – one of the leaders in Europe in terms of accumulated domestic waste. In different parts of the country there are more than 30 thousand illegal dumps. Lviv exports its garbage to other areas, and in Transcarpathia waste is simply dumped in the river, because of which Hungary and Slovakia are forced to catch them already on its territory and to fine Ukraine. Neither the central government nor local authorities can find money to solve the garbage problem.

The Lvov crisis

Until last year, all Lviv garbage was brought to the Gribovets landfill, which has been functioning since the 60s of the last century. According to the Ministry of Ecology of Ukraine, it has long been overcrowded, and the height of garbage reaches 60 m.

The need to close the landfill and start recycling waste in the Lviv and regional councils has been spoken for the last ten years. But the decision was postponed all the time, and the dump itself became a profitable place. Around the huge debris are constantly walking people who collect metal, plastic, glass and hand it over for processing.

Everything ended with tragedy. In May 2016, there was a fire, during the extinguishing of which four rescuers were killed. According to the norms of the Ukrainian legislation, special equipment for methane extraction should be installed at each such test site. But he was not at the Gribovetsky training ground.

The tragedy, which also began after the closure of the landfill “garbage blockade” of Lviv, significantly spoiled the image of the mayor of the city Andrei Sadovoy. “Garbage needs to be cleaned, not to make policy on it,” President Petro Poroshenko told Sadovo’s request to allocate 60 million UAH (about 126 million rubles) for reclamation of the landfill.

Now city officials are forced to think daily about where to put waste. Fur with Lviv garbage was noticed in various fields. For example, according to a study by the Gromeks Bureau, more than 2 thousand tons of Lviv garbage was transported to Kiev (the distance to Lviv is just over 500 km – “Gazeta.Ru”) to the polygon No. 5 in the village of Podgortsy.

“Officials of the mayor’s office of Kyiv, who publicly supported the people of Lviv, assured that all waste will be sent to the incineration plant” Energia “. On the fact in the Kiev region came the train of cars with garbage, which were quietly stored in Pidhirtsi, “the study says.

Lviv city council is ready to pay for waste utilization five to ten times more than in other settlements. Five polygons of the region agreed to accept municipal waste, said acting. Head of the Department of Housing of the city of Sergey Salo. “There are lengthy agreements, there is a certain amount of garbage, but we hope that the cooperation will continue,” he said.

City Council of Lviv allocated about 90 million UAH for reclamation of several regional landfills. The regional center, which has not been taken out for three weeks already, is gradually being cleared. By Easter, about 1300 tons were taken together.

In the forest, in the ravine, in the river

Lviv is not the only city in Ukraine that has faced a “garbage problem”. According to the Ministry of Ecology, on the territory of Ukraine there are about 6.2 thousand legal and 32 thousand illegal landfills. Totally, they occupy up to 7% of the country’s territory, which forces environmentalists to sound an alarm. Now about 12.5 billion tons of waste are stored in landfills, and annually Ukrainians produce about 300 million tons of garbage.

At the same time 80% of landfills are overcrowded and should be closed. If you can not get to the legal polygon, then the rubbish falls into the nearest ravine or just into the forest.

So, according to the deputy mayor of Kiev Petr Panteleyev, only since the beginning of March in the capital 93 natural dumps have been liquidated, for the creation of which no one was punished.

Residents of Transcarpathia simply dumped waste in the Tisza River or buried them under the shore. Garbage as a result falls on the territory of Slovakia and Hungary, which were forced to install sewage treatment plants on the banks of rivers.

Every year, Ukraine has to pay tens of thousands of euros of fines to these countries. The Governor of Transcarpathia Gennady Moskal states that the locals are categorically against the allocation of land for dumping. The situation has reached a dead end.

Minister of Ecology of Ukraine Ostap Semerak admits that the agency has to literally force cities to engage in a “garbage problem”. “The local government was not going to solve it,” he admits.

Today there are only three incinerators in Ukraine: in Kiev, the Dnieper and Kharkov. However, only the metropolitan plant “Energia” works fully.
The garbage processing plant in Ukraine is one – not far from Rovno in the west of the country, where about 80% of the city’s waste is sent for re-use.

Waiting for investors

Ukraine stores about 96% of the total waste, which is an anti-record among the countries of the European Union. For comparison: they process 38-40% of the total amount of waste.

“In Ukraine, this process is not settled, so we have to hire people who literally walk around the landfills and collect polyethylene. We then process it, “says the director of a large Ukrainian company, who asked not to be named.

It is legally impossible to collect raw materials for recycling – there are no waste sorting containers in the courtyards of houses, and the public is not told about the need to protect the environment.

There are a lot of people wishing to build waste processing plants in Ukraine, Ostap Semerak admits. Among them are companies from the EU and even Bahrain, but they can not reach the realization of the project.

“Officials want to receive a certain percentage for the granting of work rights,” the director of the Department of Housing and Communal Services of the regional administration in the west of the country admits. Investors are not ready to pay.

The problem is also in the low “garbage” tariff. Over the past two years, the fee for garbage collection on average in the country has doubled – from 4 UAH (8.4 rubles.) To 8 UAH (16.8 rubles.) Per person per month, which is ten times lower than the cost.

“Construction of a waste processing plant costs 10-50 million euros, incineration – 300 million euros. Investors consider their money. It is necessary to ensure the transparency of this process, to develop additional incentives, “said Pyotr Panteleev, deputy chairman of the Kiev administration.

The mayor of the Ukrainian capital Vitali Klichko has already said that investors need a half or two years to build garbage processing plants.

“We are currently negotiating to build two such plants. One is closer to Kiev, and the other is at the landfill where the garbage is taken, and the situation is very critical. In no event do we want to get into the same difficult situation, which Lvov got into, “Klitschko’s press service quotes him. But for this, the capital will have to significantly increase the fee for the export of waste, which can increase the number of those dissatisfied with the work of the capital’s mayor.