(KZN.RU, August 25, Ekaterina Vislavskaya). The pilot project for a separate collection of waste in residential buildings of the Aviastroitelny district showed its effectiveness. For an incomplete month, the number of recoverable useful fractions for processing grew from 7 to 15%, said Iskander Giniyatullin, the deputy head of the Kazan Executive Committee, at the staff meeting today. Ilsur Metshin, the Mayor of Kazan, instructed to strengthen work with the population, explaining the principles of waste sorting to the citizens, and to continue the implementation of this system in the whole city.
The pilot project was launched in the Aviastroitelny district on August 1. As of August 26, 11 thousand cubic meters of waste was taken to the sorting station, which corresponds to former the volume of export in the without prior separation.
The contents of the containers are exported separately. The drivers have been trained; the dispatcher additionally reminds them of the order of work. The mistake occurred only once on August 3, when the driver of one of the garbage trucks returned from the hospital, not knowing about the new rules. He was identified and punished.
All contents of the trucks are transported to the waste sorting station where the waste is added separately without mixing, and then the final sorting takes place. “We see that the quality of this waste is higher”, said the speaker. “Before August 1, the volumes of extracted useful fractions did not exceed 7-8%, now this figure is about 15%”.
The Mayor of Kazan instructed to continue informational work and teach Kazan to sort the garbage correctly. As an example, he cited the practice of installing containers for PET bottles in schools. 103 additional sets of urns and 3 containers for collecting plastic and waste paper are placed in the Aviastroitelny district by September 1. However, the photos shown at the meeting show that the children are not fully aware that the bottles need to be folded into containers crumpled to save space. “We have a long way to go, carry out explanatory work with children”, said Ilsur Metshin.
He urged to explain to people the need for careful handling of waste on simple examples. For example, to remind that by transferring one battery for recycling, rather than throwing it away, you can save the life of one hedgehog, and the volume of all the paper that was handed over last year, 2.8 thousand tons, was made from 45 thousand trees. “We need to give simple examples that should motivate to action”, said Ilsur Metshin.
In addition, Kazan authorities are currently working on introducing separate waste collection. So, 62 sets of containers for separate garbage collection that were purchased for the World Cup in 2018 remained in the city and will now be used in places of mass stay of people on urban events, parks, and squares.
More than 80 special containers for batteries, mercury, luminescent, energy-saving lamps, and thermometers will arrive in Kazan in October-November, and 10 of them will be installed in the Aviastroitelny district. Now the city has 35 points for collecting hazardous waste, mainly batteries. “Today, the collection of those hazardous wastes that occur in everyday life is organized, but not as wide as we would like. When we buy these containers, they will be within walking distance in the residential area”, said Iskander Giniyatullin.
“We naturally approached the need, the understanding that we should not just recycle waste, but separate garbage”, said Ilsur Metshin. “It is difficult to change habits, and we are certainly at the beginning of a long way. This is our tomorrow. The question that we are discussing concerns our future”.
He noted that those who argue that Russians are not ready for sorting waste are not right. “This is a disrespectful attitude to ourselves. I believe in our citizens, and especially in the younger generation. I believe that we will be able to solve this issue”.
“There is no tomorrow without this. This will develop by leaps and bounds, but it depends on us how fast we will pass this road, in 3 years or 5 years, but not in 15 years surely”, noted the Mayor. “We did solve even greater problems together with our citizens, so I believe that Kazan will be a model in the implementation of separate garbage collection in Russia”.
In the framework of the project, 428 containers installed in 109 sites of houses covered by the Management Company of the Aviastroitelny district. Kazan citizens were offered to get rid of garbage on the basis of his condition: wet and dry. Thus, 193 containers with yellow stickers for the collection of recyclable waste and 235 containers with gray stickers for collthe ection of non-recyclable wastes were installed at the houses.
Each container has an image of the type of waste it meant for, as well as inscriptions in Russian and Tatar. In addition, the instructions are placed on the container sites, in houses, elevators, public transport, there are also reminders of how to sort and store garbage on the back of the bills. The broadcasts on the same topic were shown on several TV channels, memos are published on the Internet, and representatives of the Housing and Communal Services Committee of the Kazan Executive Committee, district administration, volunteers of environmental movements “EcoLogical|Kazan” and “Budet Chisto” held meetings with the participation of local residents.