Fracture in the war with garbage

Separate garbage collection in Russia can become not only desirable, but also profitable: the State Duma has amended the legislation, offering benefits for garbage collection for residents of houses, in which different types of garbage are collected separately, Russian newspaper writes. Thus, lawmakers hope to stimulate the process of garbage sorting, which will make it suitable for processing.

The problem of garbage disposal - its destruction or processing - is one of the acute in Russia. In 2017, announced in Russia the Year of Ecology, another attempts to resolve it are made.

The “garbage” topic was raised during the so -called “direct line” of President Putin on June 15 - the head of state with citizens on the air of the central Russian television channels. The situation was complained by residents of Balashikha near Moscow, living in houses that are adjacent to a giant garbage training ground, where the waste is brought for about fifty years. There is no question of any processing - garbage is simply covered with earth.

As reporters of Channel One reported, preceding the complaint of citizens from Balashikha, directly on the eve of the “direct line”, less than a day before it, festive balloons appeared on one of the buildings near the landfill, and the people located nearby informed the television group that the building was located in the building. Nevertheless, citizens complained to the president, and he noted that residential buildings are clearly too close to the landfill, in violation of all urban planning norms. The Governor of the Moscow Region Alexander Vorobyov, according to media reports, went to the scene to understand the question.

Information about whether the garbage processing enterprise has really opened in Balashikha, and the garbage of what type or what types it processes it, has not yet been in the press.

Balashikha. Dumplings of garbage / wikimapia.org

In Europe and the USA, we recall, garbage processing enterprises have existed for a long time and are widespread.

Nevertheless, according to Svyatoslav Zabelin, co-chairman of the Council of the International Public Organization “International Socio-Ecological Union”, “garbage problem” even in developed countries is not always solved in the best way. At the same time, he is convinced that in order to begin to solve it in Russia, it is not enough to try to financially interest citizens. In an interview with Polit.ru, he explained his position.

“You know, my friend was faced with the exact same problem in Washington. There, the inhabitants of the house collect garbage separately, and then the car drives up, collects everything in one pile and takes away. This weight occurred in front of his eyes and in the eyes of his children: a garbage collection rose drove up to the containers with different varieties of garbage, and unloaded everything together. So the question is not in the initial stage, not in sorting garbage. The question is in the final stage, in its processing. The question is whether there are capacities, production, ready to accept this disassembled garbage.

Suppose a car drove up behind a container with plastic bottles, and she was lucky at a certain point A. Another car arrived behind the container with maculatory; She is taking this paper to point B, and points A and B do not coincide. And there is also a container with glass jars and bottles-and ideally the third car comes behind it and takes it to the enterprise, which is somewhere in third place, in a certain point S. The same thing-with food waste. And if such a system exists, then a separate collection makes sense. That is, it is necessary to encourage not a separate fee, but the creation of processing industries. Or it is just right to hire homeless people to sort garbage.

In fact, the question is not to convince the garbage, but to explain that it makes sense. Of course, in houses where there is a garbage chute, residents of garbage, as a rule, do not share - they do not have motivation for this. But where it is not, garbage may well sort and take out into separate containers. And if you convince citizens that everything that they collected according to different containers will be taken out exactly where necessary, for processing. If it is possible to assure citizens that the car with garbage reaches the processing point, then everything will work out. If they know that the remains of food from such and such a container definitely go for composting, plastic bottles from another container-for granular, and so on, then the system will work.

That is, a fracture, in my opinion, will happen when they say to us convincingly: guys, what you are doing is all good. And until then, our citizens who do not believe anything, “strain”, as young people call it, will not be about garbage.

Garbage sorting at the factory / wikipedia.org

So the keys to solving the problem today are as follows: firstly, the creation of processing points; Secondly, serious, with serious investments in propaganda of the need for this, so that every citizen understands the whole chain. Then they will be ready to spend time on this and keep several bags or buckets at home. But for this, I repeat, a person should be sure that the contents of each of the packages will go to his processing. Without understanding what will be at the final stage, all campaigns such as “for separate garbage” will not give an effect. Because if citizens assume that the garbage collected and divided by them will eventually get into the same landfill, like a landfill in Balashikha, they will not do anything.

In a word, from my point of view, the key point for the authorities, which announced the year of ecology in Russia, is investing in differentiated garbage processing. The state should contribute to the creation of such processing enterprises, they must exist to solve the “garbage” problem. If we have such enterprises, and there are transport, and there are separate containers near the houses, and the whole process is well promoted, widely known - then the system will work, ”said Svyatoslav Zabelin.

We add: according to a survey conducted by the Levada Center, 57% of Russians are now ready to sort home garbage if they have tanks for different types of waste in the city. Another 6% already divide the waste and hand them over to the reception points.