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Zbor m. Personal experience: How to sort garbage at home? What types of waste exist?

In June 2017, utility workers in Athens went on a ten-day strike, leaving the city mired in rubbish. Famous physicist and public figure Niels Bohr proclaimed: “Humanity will not perish from atomic bomb and endless wars, it will bury itself under mountains of its own waste.” This phrase is over 100 years old, but its relevance is only growing every year. Separate waste collection and further processing will help solve the problem of excess waste around the world.

The current environmental situation in cities - everyone’s contribution is important

We see increased interest among city residents in environmental issues. After all, everyone wants to live in clean city, walk through the parks and enjoy the view of flower beds with big amount colors. Decide ecological problems cities is impossible without the participation of residents. Many may argue that they have neither the time nor the energy to plant avenues of trees and fight polluting industries. environment. But there are simple things that everyone can do without any effort. special effort, - This separate collection garbage.

Why is separate waste collection needed?

Sorting waste depending on its composition has a beneficial effect on the environment. The decomposition period of some types of plastic is 100-200 years, and aluminum can- 500 years. Remember how much plastic bottles and cans you threw away over the past week. Now multiply the resulting number by the number of residents of your city. If you live in a metropolis, then you will probably end up with an amount of about 1,000,000!

According to the standard waste collection and disposal scenario, all waste ends up in landfills. There it decomposes under the influence of natural causes, poisoning the earth and groundwater. But up to 80% of waste can be recycled for reuse. This plastic is used to make garbage bags, garden utensils, packaging, and even clothing and shoes. Old metal is used to make cars, household appliances, garden and sports equipment.

In addition to improving ecological situation, collecting waste in groups also solves economic issues. New waste processing plants are opening, which provides new jobs. What could have become waste is turned into raw materials for enterprises. This is called the fashionable word “recycling” (from the English recycle - recycle).

Difficulties in separate waste collection

The benefits of waste sorting are obvious, but there are also disadvantages. To put a waste recycling plant into operation requires large investments. Special equipment is not cheap, and such a business will not begin to make a profit soon. Finding employees on the sorting line is also not easy, because the work is not prestigious. Another difficulty is people’s lack of understanding of the importance of separate collection household waste.

What kind of waste is there?

All waste is divided into 4 categories:

Suitable for recycling and recycling.
Toxic waste requiring special disposal (this also includes medical waste).
Non-toxic organic waste.
Waste used for combustion and thermal energy production.

Let's take a closer look at some categories of garbage.

Plastic

Decomposition period plastic bags- 100-400 years, plastic bottles and other plastic products - 200-400 years. Some species completely decompose within 1000 years. Plastic disrupts gas exchange in the soil and in water bodies. Plastic bags are often thrown away with leftover food, which attracts animals and birds. They swallow pieces of bags, which leads to their death. The same situation is with fish. In addition, during the decomposition process, plastic releases toxic substances, and in the event of a fire, toxic smoke will lead to poisoning or even death of people and animals. The solution in this case would be to collect plastic waste with further melting and recycling. Made from recycled plastic:

bottles;
containers;
carpets;
Construction Materials.

10 kg of waste will produce 8 kg of new products. The cost of waste, even taking into account the collection and storage of waste, is small, and it is several times cheaper than finished products.

Glass

Although the period of decomposition glass jars and the bottles are impressive - 1000 years old - they cause little harm to the environment. In particular, animals and people can be injured by sharp edges broken glass. The situation with the collection of glass containers in our country is not bad. Collection points for milk bottles, alcoholic drinks and lemonades existed in Soviet time and are acting now. The collected glass containers are either melted down or simply reused.

Paper

In Soviet times, both adults and children were involved in collecting and distributing waste paper. Schools even established standards for the amount of waste paper handed in per class. At paper waste collection points, the population was given coupons for the purchase of books in exchange for old newspapers, paper wrappers, notebooks and cardboard. As for the environment, damage to nature is caused not by used and discarded paper, but by deforestation to make new products. It is estimated that to save 15 trees it is necessary to collect 1 ton of waste paper.

Cans

These cans are made from galvanized or tin-coated iron. The zinc + tin compound is toxic to many living organisms. The decomposition period is 100 years. Collecting aluminum waste, its further melting and reuse will improve the environment.

Disposal methods

How do they get rid of that garbage, including that which cannot be reused? The following methods are distinguished:

burning;
burial;
composting;
briquetting.

Let's look at each of them in more detail.

Burning

Although this method is popular and cheap, it has significant disadvantages. The main one is the toxic effect of combustion products - smoke and ash - on the environment. When waste incineration occurs on an industrial scale, special equipment equipped with cleaning systems is used.

Burial

Waste is buried in the ground at special landfills, the placement of which is subject to the following requirements:

outside residential areas and medical institutions;
outside water protection zones;
outside public recreation areas.

There are also requirements for the composition of waste. The collection of waste for disposal does not include radioactive and toxic substances, as well as anything that can be reused. Buried garbage, when decomposed, releases toxic fumes that poison the air, soil and groundwater.

Composting

To understand the essence of this method, just remember the compost pits in the country. Wherein organic waste piled up where they decompose naturally. The result is a useful fertilizer. Composting on an industrial scale is carried out in the presence of oxygen and in its absence. The output is organic fertilizer. This method makes it possible to recycle up to 30% of waste.

Briquetting

If you have watched the cartoon about the robot WALL-E, then this method of disposal is familiar to you. WALL-E, alone on the abandoned planet Earth, compacted garbage into briquettes and stacked them on top of each other, creating garbage skyscrapers. Briquetting - new method. The waste is first sorted into categories and then formed into briquettes. The fate of this briquetted waste is not completely clear, as is the feasibility of the method. Perhaps it will be used as recyclable material. When compressed, waste takes up less space and is easier to transport, which is undoubtedly a good thing.

Recycling stages

We usually don't think about what happens to our trash after it ends up in the trash cans. Yes, we see that garbage trucks come and empty them, but what next? Knowing the full waste disposal cycle is very important to understand the importance of separate waste collection.

Collection and removal

Garbage collection is carried out by residents of apartment buildings or the private sector, as well as industrial facilities. If the region has established sorting of waste by category, then in the yards there are 4-5 containers for plastic, cardboard, glass, household waste, etc. Utilities or recycling companies handle waste collection and transportation.

Storage

Before waste is sent for recycling or undergoes any method of disposal, it is stored in special landfills. The rules for collection, storage and disposal of waste regulate how much waste will be stored, in what quantity and how much space it will occupy.

Transportation

To move waste from landfills to disposal or recycling facilities, special equipment is needed. This includes loading mechanisms and machines, garbage trucks.

Disposal

This is the last point in the waste collection and disposal chain. Disposal methods have already been discussed above. Each has advantages and disadvantages. Methods such as burning and burial remain popular in our country.

How to properly sort waste when recycling

There are a number of rules for waste collection intended for reuse or processing. Here are the main ones:

Discarded plastic, aluminum or glass containers must be cleared of food debris and washed. Simply rinse under warm running water.
There are combined types of packaging that are not subject to recycling. These are, for example, bags of juice, milk, wine. They consist of plastic, cardboard and aluminum.
Do not dispose of in containers intended for glass containers. window glass. They have a different structure. There is also no need to throw electric lamps into this container.
Caps should be removed from plastic bottles, and it is advisable to crush tin cans.
TO paper waste Recyclable items do not include cash receipts, egg trays, toilet paper, or napkins.
When handing over waste paper, it is advisable to remove staples, paper clips and tape from the papers.
Not all plastic can be collected. Suitable waste labeled PET1 and HDPE2. You can return bottles of water, lemonade and other drinks, containers for shampoos, household detergents and cleaning products. And here are the bottles from vegetable oil And plastic bags cannot be recycled.

Experience in waste sorting from different countries

In the European Union countries you can see 6 containers for different groups of garbage. They are painted in different colors, and these colors are the same for all EU countries. European countries have long been faced with the problem of excess waste. The small area only made the situation worse. In the 80s, the Netherlands completely switched to separate waste collection. Now there are only two landfills there. In addition, in the Netherlands, for active participation in collecting and recycling waste, residents receive benefits on housing and utility bills.

The experience of Japan is also noteworthy, where the issue of collecting solid waste and disposal due to limited territory. In particular, garbage is used to create fill areas to increase the area of the state at the expense of coastal areas. Promoting the reuse of things that may have been thrown away has become national peculiarity Japanese. This is manifested in the condemnation of wastefulness and in the use of things as long as their useful properties are at least partially preserved.

In the USA, they also actively sort garbage. This area is regulated at the legislative level, and a fine is provided for violating the rules of separate collection. More than 500 factories across the country recycle waste. Many enterprises are trying to minimize waste management by producing products in environmentally friendly packaging.

Finland has done very well in waste management over the past 15-17 years. The country uses the technology of storing waste underground in special containers. This installation utilizes up to 7 m 3 of waste.

But not only developed countries control the amount of garbage thrown away. Thus, in India, the state of Maharashtra banned the use of plastic bags. For violation of the law, a fine of $380 is provided, and in case of repeated violations they may receive prison term. Kenya has also banned plastic bags since 2017. But the punishment for violation there is harsher - a fine of up to $40 thousand or a prison term of up to 4 years.

The issue of separate collection and recycling of waste nationwide, of course, is resolved at the state level. But every person who cares about the environment can do simple things. On the one hand, sort the garbage and hand it over to collection points, and on the other, reduce the amount of waste, following the example of the Japanese, “squeezing” the maximum out of every thing.

By joint efforts, the planet’s population “produces” one Elbrus of garbage per year. If anyone has forgotten, the height of this mountain is 5642 m.

If we do not urgently begin to recycle and reuse most of the rubbish we create, we will soon poison our environment to the point of impossibility.

Moreover, the prospect of exiting open sky with a nasal filter softening the obvious stench in the air, it no longer seems surreal.

Why should a person sort garbage?

The authorities of megalopolises and large cities are forced to annually allocate huge amounts of money for the construction of new landfills, which require tens of square kilometers of healthy and clean land that could be used for another purpose.

Old landfills remain, forming “eco-complexes” that infect air, water and land pathogenic species life and substances unnatural to nature.

Just look at the fumes from PET packaging!

One of the factors for the low recycling rate of waste is the lack of sorting at the first level, i.e., it arrives at recycling centers in mixed form.
A “blend” of plastic, glass and metal, “flavored” with a significant amount of organic matter mixed with cellulose, for the most part can only be compressed and then sent to a landfill.

9/10 of the same volume of waste, if it had arrived in divided batches consisting only of paper, glass, organic matter or metal, would have gone to recycling. Only a tiny part would remain for the testing site, and the process of “cloning” Elbrus would slow down significantly.

Basic waste sorting systems

In fact, not everyone knows that there are several ways to sort garbage. It can be:

Examples of foreign experience in waste sorting

Neighbors on the planet from among developed countries This is not the first year that recycling programs have been successfully put into practice, teaching citizens to get rid of unnecessary things and garbage in accordance with established regulations.

Effective ways instilling in citizens the required behavior:

active social advertisement, explanatory work about the dangers of ownerless garbage for the planet in general and humans in particular;
a system of penalties for unsorted garbage and evidence of throwing waste on the street (a cigarette butt, a candy wrapper or a pack of juice thrown past a trash can can cost the offender a significant part of his monthly salary);
reward system for proper waste disposal.

Whether by washing or rolling, the system of waste separation has long become natural for residents of developed countries. The same American, German or French will be greatly surprised by the absence of several garbage containers or bins in a designated place.

Sorting waste in German

The German waste separation system can be considered the most rational in Europe, and indeed in the world too.

Residents are required not only to separate waste paper from glass or tin, food scraps from food, but also to put bottles of different colors into various street bins, take expired medications to the pharmacy, and throw away glass drink containers only on weekdays (so as not to disturb the peace of people).

To further facilitate the activities of enterprises processing solid waste, the Germans have developed a system for classifying food waste.
In particular, it is required:

Collect unheated organic matter (vegetable and fruit trimmings, flowers and foliage, shells and used coffee filters) only in brown containers, having previously (if possible) packed them in a sheet of newspaper, which will protect the contents of the package from accelerated process decomposition;
trimmings meat products and semi-finished products should be stored in a separate container.

American style waste sorting

The state's more than 500 municipal waste recycling plants must operate at full capacity and as efficiently as possible.

To do this, a typical city dweller or village resident throws garbage strictly into various containers, and some companies earn a good income by buying sorted waste from the population and resell it to enterprises of the corresponding profile.

Representatives of the low-income class also earn extra money doing this.

One element of the reward system for proper recycling is the payment of a certain amount of money for returning bottles.

Swedish waste sorting

The life of Swedish lovers to read a couple of times over their morning coffee printed publications is not overshadowed by the need to bother taking waste paper to a special box. In most cities, used printed products are displayed in certain days out the door, after carefully packing it.

Like the Germans, the Swedes dispose of colored containers in different bins.

Residents of high-rise buildings throw away into the common only what cannot be classified as tin, plastic, glass or paper products. Owners of their own home have the opportunity to halve the cost of waste removal if they sign an agreement according to which they will carefully sort the waste they throw away.

The process of collecting and sorting waste at the household level

In order for items that have served their purpose to rest peacefully in the gods or have a chance for “reincarnation” in the form of packaging containers, printing paper, furniture and other recyclable items, discarded garbage should initially be sorted into:

glass products;
metal packaging for juices and canned food;
old documents and paper wrappers, cardboard and other cellulose;
textile;
failed energy storage elements, fluorescent lamps.

To avoid another trip to the trash container unpleasant procedure, more reminiscent of the behavior of a homeless person going hunting, to save yourself from digging in your own own trash Where people can see it, sorting waste at home will help. To do this, you need to get a garbage container with several cells or make it yourself - the price for the opportunity to breathe is feasible for everyone clean air in future.

Without the support of the waste sorting program by the relevant housing and communal services or companies that have taken on their responsibilities, the effectiveness of household waste sorting into components will be zero. Therefore, at sites designated for solid waste storage, it is necessary to install tanks for Various types waste.

Problems of waste sorting in Russia

The two main problems in Russia regarding waste are the lack of a sufficient number of solid waste processing industries and the absolute reluctance of the population to sort thrown away items.

In some Russian cities, for example, in Moscow, they are trying to organize such collection of solid household waste. But only the conscious part of the population responds.

It is not yet possible to implement this everywhere, because it is necessary not only to separate the garbage into different containers, but to prepare it first.

For example, washing dirty plastic bottles, and not everyone is ready to do this.

The desire of the authorities to solve problems, which received support at the legislative level and from initiative persons, plus appropriate funding from the budget, will solve both problems in a short time. In parallel, active explanatory work should be carried out among citizens, starting with children preschool institutions, and introduce a system of monetary/material incentives for waste disposal in accordance with the rules.

Currently, product manufacturers offer ready-made containers for the kitchen with various markings so that waste can be sorted at home.

Muscovites need to instill a culture of waste management, says the mayor of the Russian capital, Sergei Sobyanin. The first step on this path, according to the mayor, is the creation of a separate collection infrastructure.

We hear dialogues about bags every day in the supermarket. Everyone knows that polyethylene “T-shirts” take hundreds of years to decompose, but they continue to buy them. And now at home there is already a huge bag of packages, which sooner or later will also go to trash can.

True, we must pay tribute, reusable bags and eco-friendly bags have begun to appear in Russian stores. More and more often they can be seen not only on the shelves, but also in the hands of our fellow citizens. In general, everything is relatively clear with the consumer culture: take goods with less packaging, give up endless bags. But you can’t do without this completely. And what to do next? How to deal with garbage to minimize the harm caused to nature? According to experts, one of the most effective options for solving the problem is to switch to separate waste collection.

In general, this practice is not so new for Russia. In Soviet times, there were collection points for, for example, glass containers and waste paper in almost every yard. For old notebooks and newspapers, people received book coupons, and for glass bottles- money. Thus, on the one hand, it was possible to save money on the production of new bottles, and on the other, excellent recyclable materials for new paper products appeared. In the 1990s, everything was forgotten and abandoned, so now the system must be created from scratch.

In the capital they began to seriously engage in this quite recently. The first attempts were made in 2014–2015. At that time, about 26 stationary waste separate collection points and 27 mobile ones were installed in Moscow. Only three districts were covered: Northern, Northeastern and Southwestern. Of course, for a massive transition to new system this was not enough, but it became clear that in general, with good level With the development of infrastructure, Muscovites are ready to start sorting again.

Today, separate waste collection means at a minimum the separation of waste into food and non-food. Most of the latter are subject to further processing. For example, toilet paper, egg packaging and other products are made from waste paper. paper products, and the glass is sent to cullet for processing and creating new glass products (that’s why even broken glass is accepted).

670 recycled cans = 1 bicycle; 54 kg newsprint = 1 tree; using 10% broken glass = 3% gas savings.

In December 2017, the President of the Russian Federation signed a law establishing separate waste collection. The corresponding article of the law with amendments to federal legislation in the field of industrial and consumer waste will come into force on January 1, 2019. Contracts have already been concluded for the creation of infrastructure for sorting, transporting and processing waste with five companies: Charter LLC, EcoLine LLC, MKM-Logistics LLC, MSK-NT LLC, Spetstrans LLC. True, there is no single legal act that would clearly regulate their activities, so in each district companies set their own rules. Appearance reception points also depend on the operator. For example, these could be pavilions with holes or mesh containers.

The categories of waste accepted also vary. Traditionally they are divided into paper, plastic, glass and aluminum. Some companies have different compartments for different categories, while others have some combined. In both cases, most often one vehicle is involved in the removal, from which many residents conclude that the garbage goes to a landfill and no further processing does not exist.

Previously, we had four cars, but the waste still gets mixed up, sometimes people throw something in the wrong place, so we decided not to just drive several cars.”

Experts from JSC "Research Institute of Ecological and General design" note that if mixing glass, metal and plastic is acceptable because they do require further sorting at the plant, then the percentage of paper and cardboard suitable for recycling is then significantly reduced. Contaminated waste paper cannot be recycled and must be removed separately.

The principle of installing containers sometimes raises questions. For example, in the Khoroshevsky district, separate waste collection requires real effort from residents - to get to the mesh container, you need to either move a heavy garbage can or show miracles of dexterity.

“As a deputy, I constantly receive complaints that these containers exist, but they do not fulfill their function; responsible citizens have no opportunity to throw sorted garbage there,” Lyubov Yakubovskaya, an employee of the Security Center, told the website portal wildlife and municipal deputy of the Khoroshevsky district.

In addition to optimizing the operation of existing points, it is necessary to create new points. Now there are still few of them for a full transition to the new system. For example, in the same Khoroshevsky district there are 34 streets and, according to the map, only three separate waste collection points. It turns out that there are 11 streets per container. “According to government contracts, there is one point for recyclable materials per 12.5 thousand residents, this is extremely insufficient,” the head of the environmental public organization“ECA Movement” Tatyana Chestina. “It is necessary for municipal authorities to get involved and, if necessary, subsidize containers for recyclables in every yard.”

Another serious obstacle to the introduction of a culture of separate waste collection is the lack of any system of informing citizens. Often people do not even realize that such points exist in their area. To cope with this problem, the capital authorities launched interactive map recycling collection points - however, today it is completely useless due to the lack of updates.

In addition, in order to trust the separate waste collection system (SSR), people must understand why they sort waste, how exactly to do it and where it will end up in the future. “We need to install signs and instructions, create a transparent waste logistics scheme, organize information support on the Internet,” Olga Zatsepina, head of the environmental design department at EcoStandard group, told the website portal. Many, for example, still do not realize that in the Moscow region there are more than 400 processing enterprises and almost all of them are experiencing a shortage of recyclable materials. In addition, according to Zatsepina, it is necessary to carry out centralized environmental education at various levels: in schools, universities, offices of commercial companies and government agencies.

In general, if you have a sufficient number of containers, sorting requires minimal effort. At home, it is enough to allocate a small space for waste paper and have only two containers for garbage: one for non-recyclable waste and the second for everything else. There are also not many rules for waste collection. It is enough to carefully read the labeling on containers in order to weed out non-recyclable types of plastic and not confuse paper and tetrapack, from which most juice and milk cartons are made. It is enough to rinse and compress the containers so that they take up less space. Some operators may also ask you to remove the cap and label from the bottle.

The process of collecting waste can be further simplified by installing disposers - shredders in the sink in apartments, says Valeria Korosteleva, founder of the Moscow branch of the Separate Collection movement. "All food waste they go there, then mixed garbage is generated once a week,” the leader of the movement explained to the website portal. In addition, such a solution will reduce the load on landfills near Moscow, since food waste makes up about 30% of all municipal waste capital Cities.

The main treatment facilities in Moscow are capable of processing sludge Wastewater and produce biogas. “Disposers can be implemented according to a similar scheme in which water meters were introduced: the shredder is a numbered device, everyone who installed it and registered it in Moscow will have their garbage collection fees reduced,” the ECA Movement suggests. “The second option is for the city to install the shredders using housing subsidies.”

Of course, while RSO in Moscow is just beginning to develop, before the system is fully launched, Muscovites and city authorities need to take many more steps to meet each other. But practice shows that the capital definitely has the opportunity to transition to civilized waste management. Volunteer movements and projects provide significant assistance to residents of the capital: they publish useful tips, teach how to get a container installed in your yard, and organize mobile points reception where official operators have not yet reached. Often, Muscovites just need to open a map, find the nearest point and start acting.

A little about trash

Our country is mired in garbage. More than 50 million tons of waste are sent to landfills every year. And every year this number is growing. Almost all waste in Russia is buried in landfills, contaminating the water we drink and releasing hazardous substances into the air we breathe. Every year more and more land is allocated for landfills. Some cities are proposing the construction of expensive and extremely dangerous waste incineration plants as an alternative to landfills. They poison the air and turn relatively harmless waste into toxic ash, which also has to be buried. The share of waste recycling in Russia is at the level of 3-5%, which is an order of magnitude less than in European countries. For example, in Germany 65% of waste is recycled, and in San Francisco - more than 80%.

Just a few facts about garbage:

. 100,000 marine animals and 1,000,000 birds die every year from mistaking plastic for food;
. 1 battery pollutes 20 square meters of land, and this is the habitat of one hedgehog and two moles;
. 60 kg of waste paper is saved by one tree;
. garbage dumps in Russia they already occupy a space equal to the area of Switzerland;
. if a tower with a 1x1 meter base is built from the waste that Russian residents throw out every year, then it will be possible to climb up to the moon;
. every year in Russia the territory for landfills increases by an area equal to Moscow and St. Petersburg combined;
. each of us throws out 400 kg of garbage per year.

What is separate garbage collection?

Separate waste collection is a system in which waste is separated into several types in order to then reuse it and produce new products from it at special plants. This approach significantly reduces Negative influence on the environment, which would be produced by discarded garbage rotting in landfills, and also reduces the need for mining (including non-renewable) natural resources to produce products from scratch. Material recycling is about saving energy and resources and preventing air and water pollution.

In most yards, garbage collection bins now look like this

or like this

These are containers for separate waste collection in Arkhangelsk.

Yellow - for plastic, glass and aluminum. Blue - for paper and cardboard. Bright colors allow them to stand out and be different from the usual ones, and pictures and inscriptions make sorting easier. At almost all sites, such containers are locked and have small (often not very convenient) holes. This is done for the purpose of anti-vandal protection.
In Severodvinsk Containers for separate waste collection look like this

or like this

In Arkhangelsk, the separate waste collection project began in November 2014. IN this moment There are more than 40 container sites in the city. You can view the addresses of sites with containers for separate waste collection at EcoCarte Arkhangelsk region.

What to recycle?

Listed below is the range of waste accepted for processing in Arkhangelsk. For Severodvinsk it is somewhat wider.

Plastic:

. PET bottles for water, drinks + caps;
. bottles of detergents (shampoos, household chemicals);
. packing tape;
. plastic cans;
. plastic fruit boxes
Caps and labels do not need to be removed. Vegetable oil bottles are not accepted.

Glass:

. glass bottles;
. jars (glass containers).
The bottles do not need to be washed, the labels do not need to be removed. Only energy-saving LED light bulbs can be thrown away.

Metal:

. aluminum cans;
. cans.
Aerosol bottles (hairspray, air freshener) are not accepted.

Paper:

. newspapers magazines;
. books;
. carton boxes;
. office paper.
Juice and dairy product packaging (tetra-pack) is not accepted, as it is very difficult and economically unfeasible to recycle. We also do not accept paper towels, napkins, paper egg containers, toilet paper since they are final stages paper recycling.

For convenience, there is such a colorful visual diagram.

At the end of January, Greenpeace presented a rating of the most convenient cities in Russia for separate waste collection (SSR). As follows from the organization’s research, out of 73.7 million residents of large cities, only 14.5% have access to the appropriate infrastructure, i.e. 10.7 million people.

By the way, the leader of this rating is Mytishchi, located near Moscow, where 93% of the population have round-the-clock access to separate collection. In general, in the Moscow region, only the lazy don’t talk about separate waste collection. Weekly on environmental actions V different corners Hundreds of people come out of the region, the authorities report on the full implementation of RSO in the cities of the region, and entire manuals appear on the Internet, in which they talk about how to sort your waste. Such consciousness of both the authorities and citizens, who suddenly, in a single impulse, began to engage in a common cause, cannot but rejoice. FBA "Economy Today" decided to figure out what separate waste collection is and why it is so important today.

Why is garbage separated in the West?

Garbage is collected separately so that it can be recycled. In the West, garbage is collected in different bins to make it easier to send it for recycling at sorting stations. For example, organic waste, which makes up about 35% of the standard trash can, are used to make fertilizers and biofuels. In general, no more than 70% of municipal solid waste (MSW) can be processed in the usual way; the main thing is to separate it correctly. It is much easier to make new glass from used glass than to make it from scratch. From batteries, which should never be thrown into the trash, you can make fertilizer for corn (and if you simply throw a battery into a trash can, it will pollute up to 400 liters of water or 20 square meters of land).

A lot of new plastic things can be made from recycled plastic, and the recycled paper will be used for new notebooks and books.

I started sorting my trash. What's next?

Almost nothing so far. In Russia there is practically no infrastructure that will allow us to fully recycle waste. The fact is that there are now very few enterprises that can recycle waste. And the number of bins and bins for separate waste collection is not enough. At best, you will find a separate bin for collecting plastic bottles. And only if you are a resident of the capital or one of the largest cities in the country.

Is it all in vain?

No. The introduction of mandatory separate waste collection is just around the corner. Firstly, in the next few years, modern waste incineration plants (WIPs) with accompanying infrastructure - sorting and transfer stations, special containers for waste collection and much more will appear in the Moscow region. For the full functioning of such incinerators, separate waste collection is necessary. The factories themselves, in turn, are needed in order to reduce the load on existing landfills, which are rapidly depleting their resources.

As mentioned above, 30% of waste cannot be recycled in the usual way, but it can be converted into energy. This is exactly what modern waste incineration plants allow you to do. And it would be more correct to call them plants for thermal processing of waste into energy.

In addition, separate waste collection will create conditions for the development of small businesses, as is happening in the West. For properly sorted waste processing plants ready to pay good money. However, the final beneficiaries will be the people themselves: the more enterprises engage in processing, the cheaper the products will end up being.

And what to do next?

Then all that remains is to prepare, understand the separate collection, teach your children and help your neighbors. Waste incineration plants in the Moscow region, RT-Invest will be built under the control of Rostec’s subsidiary in three to four years, and separate collection in the region will most likely be introduced earlier, so that people get used to it and the new “garbage order” does not come as a shock to them. According to the plans of the authorities, within ten years the entire country should adopt the experience of the Moscow region, when separate waste collection will become commonplace from Kaliningrad to the Kuril Ridge.

By the way, in addition to separate waste collection, you can also think about the so-called “reasonable consumption”. For example, you can start saving water, not using cardboard cups in coffee shops, but using your own thermos and turning off the lights in the rooms if you are not sitting there. This way, you can not only help nature, but also save a lot of money.

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