Kazan will create a first full waste management cycle in Russia.

(KZN.RU, June 12, Alsu Safina). For the first time in Russia, Kazan plans to create a full waste management cycle. The trilateral Memorandum of Intent was signed today at the meeting in the City Hall by Ilsur Metshin, the Mayor of Kazan, Denis Butsaev, the general director of the PPK “Russian Ecological Operator”, and Andrey Shipelov, the head of OAO “RT-Invest”.

Creating a modern innovative system for the collection and disposal of waste involves arranging recessed containers in the yards. They will allow to organize records of collected and exported wastes and switch to their actual payment. It also involves installing fandomats for drinking containers in shopping centers of the city. In addition, it is planned to create another waste sorting station in Kazan and the development of production facilities for the processing of glass, plastic, metal and organic matter. According to Denis Butsaev, the waste management system created in Kazan is one of the best practices in this area in the country.

Before signing the Memorandum, the guests studied the process of separate garbage collection in Kazan. Together with the Mayor of the city, they visited the yards of the residential complex “ART-City”, on Bolshaya Krasnaya Street, №65, Absalyamov Street, №29a, and Dekabristov Street, №100.

A pilot project was launched a year ago in the capital of Tatarstan to introduce a separate collection of municipal waste. At the initial stage, 109 container sites of the Aviastroitelny district were equipped with 428 containers for recyclable and non-recyclable waste. As a result, the volume of municipal solid waste removal to landfill was reduced by 30-35%. Today, containers for dual garbage collection are equipped at more than 850 sites in the yards of the housing stock. A separate collection of municipal solid waste was organized in all districts of Kazan.

On Dekabristov Street, №100, waste is sorted into 4 fractions: glass, cardboard, plastic, including PET, and non-sorted waste. Residents have actively joined in the separate waste collection. The volume of exported unsorted MSW has decreased by an average of 30%. And at the expense of collecting PET, the management company installed swings in 8 yards of its district.

According to Iskander Giniyatullin, the deputy head of Executive Committee, today 54% of Kazan yards are equipped with sites and containers for separate collection. It is planned to complete the work on the installation of containers in the city during the summer.

The separate waste collection is part of the program of environmental education for young Kazan citizens, said Ilnar Khidiyatov, the head of the Department of Education. More than 200 thousand children are brought up in schools and kindergartens in Kazan. Taking into account their parents and grandparents, the program covers more than half of the city’s population.

Unified eco-lessons are held for children and their parents. All schools in the city are provided with bins and street euro-containers for separate waste collection. In addition, the collection of waste paper was organized; about 2 thousand tons were collected just for this academic year.

Another school project “Second Life of Packing” implements children's crafts at charity fairs. The proceeds are used for purchasing seedlings for the project “I choose the forest”.

Ilnar Khidiyatov also spoke about the cooperation with the company “Duracell Russia” in the collection and recycling of used batteries. The most active student was Amir Valeyev, a 3rd-grade student of the school №121, who collected 180 kg of used batteries. He received a smartphone as a gift from the company. The school №143 was recognized the most active one, which collected 1211.5 kg. The school was awarded the environmental laboratory “Pchelka”. In just 2 months, 10.5 tons of used batteries were collected.

Denis Butsaev, the general director of the public and rights company “Russian Ecological Operator”, noted that what he saw is impressive. Especially, the fact that the introduction of separate waste collection is carried out in all areas, both in yards and in educational institutions. “Today, during the inspection, we paid attention to the standards that are implemented for both the waste sites themselves and the containers that are used by the regional operator for garbage collection. What we saw is one of the best practices on the territory of the country, both in terms of the performance quality and technology”, Denis Butsaev shared his impressions. “And this system applies not only to the places of waste in the yards, but also to educational institutions”.

The general director of the PPK “Russian Ecological Operator” drew attention to the fact that entrepreneurs interested in recycling are involved in the export of sorted waste, namely plastic bottles. “We see that with systemic support from the municipality and the region, small and medium businesses go to those sectors that are not currently covered by other market participants, and engage in waste recycling”.

In general, several investment projects in the capital of Tatarstan are being considered, according to Denis Butsaev.

One of the steps to create a modern innovative system for the collection and recycling of waste will be the installation of fandomats in the shopping centers of the city. Fandomat is a machine for receiving containers from drinks by the principle of a pledge. A deposit is included in the price of the goods in the package, which is returned to the buyer when he hands over the empty container to the fandomat. These devices are successfully used in different countries of the world.

The fact that Kazan, along with Moscow and the Moscow Region, will become a pilot city for the implementation of this project in Russia became known at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, where a corresponding Memorandum was signed. “We expect Kazan to be one of the first cities to implement this system”, marked the director of the PPK “Russian Ecological Operator”. He explained that in the next few months they will work on amending the current legislation on the packaging, which will be collected by fanomats and sent for recycling. At the same time, a technological plan will be developed. They will analyze how many devices will be required for the full operation of the system, etc. After that, it will be possible to start the implementation of the project.

Another innovation should be the containers of the recessed type. Outdoor areas are subject to precipitation, high temperatures, and the waste becomes unusable as a result. New containers will be underground in a concrete pit. The container itself can be a bag of nonwoven materials or metal or plastic construction. Only the tip will be on the surface, it opens with a plastic card. Thus, the system will record the volume and weight of the waste and who puts the garbage. Waste will be pressed and stored in a container until the arrival of garbage trucks, which will also be different from the present ones. The bag will be lifted out of the ground and emptied into the truck or the cartridge filled with debris will be replaced with an empty one.

“Such a system will allow organizing accounting of actually collected and exported waste, which is still impossible to implement, and switch to payment for actually exported waste”, said Iskander Giniyatullin, the deputy head of the Executive Committee. He added that the amount of waste to removal will decrease with separate garbage collection.

The project investor is the “Russian Environmental Operator”. “Now we are selecting land plots. It is necessary to take into account the requirements of legislation, sanitary norms and rules”, said I. Giniyatullin. “There are no examples of such projects in Russia yet”.

Another waste sorting station will be built in addition to the already existing in Kazan. The location of the new station has not yet been determined.

The Memorandum signed today also provides the construction of full-fledged processing industries, which will process the recycled materials extracted during sorting into final products. According to Iskander Giniyatullin, it is planned to recycle plastic, glass, metal, and organic matter using composting.

Ilsur Metshin, the Mayor of Kazan, reminded that in the next few years, the capital of Tatarstan will have to pass an important road that other cities have passed over a much longer period. The Memorandum concluded today will give a new impetus in this direction, believes the head of the city.

“This is a big step in the development of Kazan. According to the head of the Russian Ecological Operator, the city is among the leaders of the country, since most of the infrastructure issues have been resolved in Kazan”, said Ilsur Metshin. “Great work has been done. This gives reason to expect that the new important task will be within our reach”.

The meeting was also attended by Denis Kalinkin, the head of the Kazan Executive Committee, Rustem Gafarov, the first deputy head of the Executive Committee, Dmitry Anisimov, the chairman of the Housing and Communal Services Committee, the heads of district administrations, the head of the company-operator of garbage removal in Kazan OOO “UK PZhKKh”.