I. Metshin: “Garbage sites of Kazan occupy 900 hectares and this place could be used for parks and housing”

(KZN.RU, June 6, Alsu Safina). The reclamation of the Samosyrovka dumping, which during its existence has grown to impressive volumes, is under way around-a-clock in Kazan. Today Ilsur Metshin, the Mayor of Kazan, got acquainted with the way this work is carried out during the press tour of Kazan journalists. Representatives of the media also visited the landfill “Vostochny”, where waste was brought from Kazan since March.

As the Mayor noted during the conversation with journalists, there are not only new objects but also problem points in the capital of Tatarstan as in any other metropolis. The Samosyrovskya dumping, impressive for its scale and height, is one of them.The height of the garbage mountain is more than 9-storey building. Once formed spontaneously, the dumping has expanded and spread over the years to a huge area of up to 29 hectares and about 45 meters high above the ground. The reclamation of the largest in Tatarstan Samosyrovskaya dumping, which is 2.5 km from Kazan, began last year.

The Mayor noted that such a volume of garbage was collected on this territory for more than half a century. “Thousands of tons of garbage are collected around the city”, said I. Metshin.

According to him, not only Kazan and other capitals of Russian subjects faced such problems but all cities in any part of the world. “These are the challenges faced by any city government”, noted I.Metshin.

I.Metshin thanked the federal authorities and Rustam Minnikhanov, the President of Tatarstan, for the funds, which were allocated for reclamation of the dumping. 274 million rubles were allocated for these purposes. By results of the auction, the OOO “Rusremstroy” was determined to be the contractor, having experience of reclamation of the Togaevskiy dumping in Naberezhnye Chelny.

Iskander Giniyatullin, the deputy head of the Executive Committee and the chairman of the Housing and Utilities Committee, said that the reclamation of the Samosyrovka dumping is separated into stages. So, before the end of this year, it is supposed to finish the technical stage, after which the biological stage will follow. Up to 20 pieces of machinery units involved in the work every day around the clock.

After the reclamation, the height of the object will be 30 meters.

Currently, all solid domestic waste from Kazan, which is about 1 thousand tons daily, are transported to the landfill “Vostochny”, which began operating in March this year. Modern technologies for waste disposal are used there. “Now this is the only facility for solid domestic waste in Kazan. Construction and industrial wastes are transported to the landfill “Vozrozhdenie”, noted I. Giniyatullin.

“When the thickness of the accumulated waste reaches 2.5 meters the soil will be re-poured and sealed”, said the chairman of the Committee for Housing and Communal Services. The height of the first stage will be 25 meters. As I.Giniyatullin noted, the landfill is designed for 15 years.

The Mayor drew attention to the fact that 29 hectares are occupied only by the dumping itself and there is also a sanitary protection zone around it. “You see a mountain of garbage behind me. “900 hectares of land in Kazan including the sanitary zones are used for dumpings, landfills, SDW landfills, which are withdrawn from the economic usage”, the Mayor told reporters. “And there should be housing, parks, squares, kindergartens, and other objects instead”.

Ilsur Metshin marked that systematic work is being done in Kazan to collect, process, and dispose of garbage. “365 days a year we are dealing with the issue of garbage in the city, its export and processing”, he said.

As for the separate collection of garbage, it is a matter of education, believes the Mayor. “Europe and the world have done this, this is a very complex educational process and it depends, first of all, on people. Now we all need to learn how to put garbage to different bins”, said I. Metshin.

I. Giniyatullin said that the training program for schoolchildren about the benefits of separate collection of garbage is being developed.

The chairman of the Committee for Housing and Communal Services also reminded that such a direction as garbage processing has entered the program of concessional lending to small and medium-sized businesses for the first time. It means that new investors and projects await the sphere of waste disposal in the capital of the RT.