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Kazakhstan implements waste-management pilot projects
With garbage crisis looming, country seeks solutions
By Alexandra Babkina
2012-04-17
ALMATY – In its latest and largest attempt to solve its growing garbage problem, Kazakhstan will implement pilot projects for processing solid waste in Almaty, Aktau, Astana, Zhambyl, Karaganda, Shymkent, Petropavlovsk and Ust-Kamenogorsk.
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![A conveyor belt piles paper into a pile for compression into bales at a trash-recycling plant in Aktau April 10. Kazakhstan is seeking solutions to its growing garbage problem. [Alexandra Babkina]](/shared/images/2012/04/17/kzgar.jpg)
A conveyor belt piles paper into a pile for compression into bales at a trash-recycling plant in Aktau April 10. Kazakhstan is seeking solutions to its growing garbage problem. [Alexandra Babkina]
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![An Almaty resident drops garbage into a container for household waste in Almaty April 11. One solution to Kazakhstan’s waste problem is to set up separate containers for landfill waste and recycling. [Alexandra Babkina]](/shared/images/2012/04/17/kzgar2.jpg)
An Almaty resident drops garbage into a container for household waste in Almaty April 11. One solution to Kazakhstan’s waste problem is to set up separate containers for landfill waste and recycling. [Alexandra Babkina]
“The pilot projects will see Kazakhstan convert to civilised methods of waste disposal in managed landfills, its subsequent processing and the promotion of garbage sorting,” said Victor Merkushev, head of the Municipal Services Administration at the Kazakhstani Construction and Housing Utilities Agency.
“Kazakhstan can finally move forward in its struggle with garbage dumps that are growing at an astronomical rate,” Merkushev said. Plans are in place to recycle 70% of all waste by 2020 by having residents and industry separate waste from recyclable items.
Garbage cannot wait
According to the Environmental Protection Ministry, the country has accumulated 23 billion tonnes of solid waste – a total that increases by 700m tonnes a year.
Almaty, the country’s most populous city, has the most solid waste. Last year, it buried 470,000 tonnes of trash. Pavlovar Oblast, which lacks a waste-processing plant and buries all its garbage, holds second place.
“The issue of household and industrial waste disposal in Kazakhstan is critical,” explained Serikzhan Mambetalin, the leader of Rukhaniyat, an environmental party.
The initiative comes at the right time, he said.
“In Kazakhstan, the accumulated waste per capita is about 2,000 tonnes annually, whereas in Germany it is 400kg,” Merkushev said Kazakhstan recycles only 3-5% of all garbage, a figure the government wants to increase.
“Garbage cannot wait, and the government must urgently develop and implement a waste-processing system,” said Zufar Dzhandosov, a staff expert on the Environmental Protection Ministry Committee of Ecological Regulation and Oversight. "Every effort must be taken so that the pilot projects are implemented efficiently.”
“Our country ... has vast steppes, but how much longer can we treat them as one huge garbage dump?” asked Merkushev.
Aktau 1st in line
The Mangistau Oblast government, with help from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in Aktau, has begun making preparations to construct a plant to recycle waste into bio-gas and “green” fuel for generating electricity.
“The project is aimed at recycling municipal waste, which comes mainly from households,” said Damir Kameshev, director of the Public Utilities Project Co-ordination Centre in Mangistau Oblast.
Designers have developed a plan for a modern waste-recycling plant with an adjacent landfill, he said. The IMOG waste-recycling plant in Belgium will serve as the model for this plant.
Plant construction is set to begin in 2012 at an estimated cost of $23.8m (3.5 billion KZT). Authorities also plan to raise environmental awareness and emphasise the benefits of the public sorting its garbage.
“Until now we have not had a recycling industry,” Mambetalin said. “Now that we are taking our first steps, ... it is necessary to create a legal foundation and to fix rates.”
The Construction and Public Utilities Affairs Agency is introducing several amendments to modernise its utilities. The amendments are to the strategic development of solid-waste recycling as well as its financing and laws governing it.
Should garbage be separated?
Separate containers for trash and recyclables were installed in Aktau and other pilot cities in late 2011. However, most Kazakhstanis continue to throw out unseparated trash.
“Unfortunately, our people are still not used to sorting their garbage, like in developed countries,” said Galia Karibzhanova, head of the Department of Economic Regulation and Sustainable Development at the Environmental Protection Ministry. Fining violators could help, but such a system is far off, officials said.
“As of now, we lack the legal foundation for ... issuing such fines, since we cannot control how garbage is thrown away,” said Nina Gor, deputy director of the Waste Management Department at the Environmental Protection Ministry.
“Even if people sort their garbage ... the garbage trucks mix it into one big pile,” said Olga Pavlovskaya, a spokeswoman for the NGO Central Asia Regional Environmental Centre. The Environmental Protection Ministry has recognised the problem and intends to address it.
While the public isn’t ready to “sort its garbage at home,” Tabigat Party leader Gani Kasimov said he supports installing separate containers for food waste and solid waste.
But Gor said big-city residents will ultimately support garbage sorting.
“It's important that people believe that containers for separate waste collection are not just there for show but represent a link in the chain of a proper waste management system,” she said. “For this we first need to create this chain and educate the public.”
As a first step, the Environmental Protection Ministry has developed a technical regulation that covers the entire cycle for handling solid waste.
“We have established strict requirements for all businesses that produce packaged products,” Gor said. “They will be obligated to buy back their packaging from the public. Under these conditions, there will be a real incentive to sort household waste.”
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Nature has no waste. We must learn from nature to create closed-cycle production units and enterprises. The ultimate goal should be profit from waste-free production. Only then we can speak of complete waste recycling. There are tens of billions of tons of waste in our country, and it will take decades to recycle it. This is an urgent and immediate work at the state level in each and every sector.
Waste recycling, household waste, plastics and other waste is a lucrative business in Europe, the U.S. and other countries. First, companies are paid for recycling, and afterwards they can sell recycled products such as fertilizers, pressed wood panels, building materials, plastic products, and so on, re-used in all industries. “Kazniipi Dortrans" Institute specializes in developing innovative building materials from recycled building materials, industrial and household waste. It developed more than 50 patents and drafted guidelines and documentation for manufacturing and building production technology. Investment is needed for expanding its business in Kazakhstan.
The leader of the Party of Patriots of Kazakhstan, Gani Kasymov, not "Tabigat" - there is no such party.
Very relevant.
$23.8m is an exaggerated amount... For CIS-made waste-processing plants existing in the international market for sale, the average price is about $3m-$5m. Add installation, wiring, delivery and similar costs that should not exceed $500,000. Of course, local authorities have some interest in waste processing, but it usually comes down to paying bribes to get various signatures and permits... And if you ask people what an official at any level can decide by signing one permit or another if he does not know anything about waste processing technologies ... even the article does not say a single word about pyrolysis plants that generate electricity or heat, or synthetic gas, or fuels ... Neither does it say why they are reluctant to allow the wholesale application of these systems... Power generation monopolies block the use of such technologies. Only those sitting in the chair of power and feeling like a princeling in their districts, like feudals, know how they do it... Pushing the project through, if it costs less money that can go into the pockets of government officials at various levels in bribes, is a utopia. First, you need to raise the issue of interest of our government in improving the lives of ordinary people who pay taxes to feed a huge apparatus of people taking advantage of the moment to make fortunes... There are some technologies in the area but it may be difficult to find an investor... and most people do not need it ... They are preoccupied with their domestic problems. So, we deserve it.
An awareness drive is not enough. It is necessary to establish a system of fines for people are not conscientious enough to do everything right. It is necessary to fine and penalize them, while fines should be used to increase wages to people who will deal with the work they did not perform, those who will sort out garbage. You need to install video surveillance cameras, and the offenders can be caught easily because it is located close to houses. Households and companies should finance the maintenance and wages of workers at the recycling plant through TOO Spets Mashiny, and households should pay not only for waste transportation but also for waste disposal.
Yes, I would like something better, but a lot of little things have not been well-considered, and it is these little things that hamper proper waste disposal. It is necessary to build a plant using money collected for emissions into the environment. For how many years have companies been paying tax on emissions to the environment for household waste? The maintenance and wages of workers at the recycling plant should be the responsibility of TOO Spets Mashiny, and households should pay not only for waste transportation but also for processing. Revenues from processing should be used to improve playgrounds and paid to people in dividends. Also, it is possible to reduce the cost of TOO Spets Mashiny services. Major repairs and maintenance should be done at the expense of emissions for the environment. To control the sorting of waste, it is necessary to establish a system of penalties to detect culprits through video surveillance. It is easy to catch those who break the law because it is located close to residential houses.
I think this is the right decision. After all, waste disposal is not just the release of trash lands in Kazakhstan, and the concern about the health of our home planet - our nature. In particular, about the health of millions of people. I am not a green, maybe, but I dream of a brighter future. I think this is the pursuit of perfection! Disposal of waste by throwing it in the right container. Use electricity wisely. Driving a small economical and environmentally friendly car (as in Europe). Then, many people can really make their vivid dreams come true! I think we should thank Serikzhan Mambetalin, Gani Kasymov, Olga Pavlova, Galie Karibzhanova and Nina Gore. Me, a 16 year old who has only recently become interested in ecology!
Yes, the article is good. It is important to emphasize that processing plants make no sense without separate garbage collection. Secondly, apart from investment the state should support modern technology imports, for example by offering customs duty concessions.
Nice story. Garbage cannot wait!
It should have been done a long time ago!!!
The author noted correctly, if the garbage issue is not solved now, Kazakhstan will become a huge dump... Money must be allocated from the budget to build waste treatment plants. Teachers at ecology and biology lessons at school should talk about the need to separate waste, the way they do it in Germany.
This is a pressing issue; they have long recycled waste in the West.
Just a comment - the 2nd most littered Oblast in Kazakhstan - Pavlodarskaya Oblast - is not among the 8 pilot areas (out of 14); where is the logic?