Ukrainian NGO initiates landfill tours to educate on waste pollution and eco-friendly habits

Free tours of landfills are offered to all residents of Ukraine's western city of Khmelnytskyi, the local media Expres reports.

What is the problem?

"Few people know, but approximately 106,000 tons of waste are thrown away in our regional center annually. That is, each person in the community generates 2 kilograms of garbage every second," said a "Smart Environment. Khmelnytskyi" NGO representative, Svitlana Karytun. "This is quite a large scale."

According to the environmentalist, the landfill in Kmelnytskyi was to be rehabilitated about six years ago, and there were plans to build a waste processing plant. "We received certain licenses and went through the tendering procedure, but a full-scale war stood in the way of the plans. However, the problem with garbage has not disappeared," she added.

What is the solution?

The NGO "Smart Environment. Khmelnytskyi" became the organizer of the excursion to the landfill. With such tours, the environmentalists want to show the problem of generating and accumulating waste "in all its glory" and to explain how it can be prevented.

How does it work?

The organizers posted an announcement about excursions on social media. About 50 people, including children and internally displaced persons, gathered for the first round. As part of the first tour, the participants were taken to the Khmelnytskyi solid waste landfill, which has operated since 1956. 

"The mountains of garbage are eight stories high and growing all the time. That way, people can see the scale of the problem," said Karytun. 

Next, the participants went to the Waste Management Center to see how waste is sorted. This garbage is handed over to entrepreneurs who use it as secondary raw materials. The third location is an eco bus, which operates at 20 points in the city and accepts medicines, thermometers, batteries, accumulators, paints, solvents, non-working electronics, glue, and mercury-containing lamps.

"All this is disposed of with taxpayers' money. After that, we took the visitors to the sorting site of the utility company that collects glass and plastic in the city. At this site, people could see sorting and pressing the collected garbage," said the environmental activist.

According to Karytun, after this tour, many participants reported that they started sorting garbage and sharing their experiences with their friends.

Background

On July 9, European Integration Law No. 2320-IX "On Waste Management," adopted in 2022, entered into force in Ukraine. It launches a garbage reform, in particular, replacing the concept of "waste" with "raw material" to make recycling attractive for investment. The document is a framework, so it requires the adoption of several additional acts, most of which are still in the development stages.

In addition to replacing the concept of "waste" with the idea of "raw material," it provides for a new permit system, decentralization of waste management, multi-level planning, infrastructure development, the introduction of the European principles of the waste management hierarchy, extended producer responsibility (EPR) and the "polluter pays" principle.

The last point is critical, although it has not yet been implemented in practice. Now, when buying a product, for example, bread, the buyer also pays for the cost of the packaging, which very quickly turns into garbage. However, the further fate of such waste does not concern manufacturers. Packaging and other product waste, like the products themselves, at best end up in a landfill, and in the worst case, in the forest, on a spontaneous dump.

The new law introduces the concept of extended producer responsibility, obliging companies to collect and dispose of packaging and other waste from their products, either independently or in collaboration with other companies. Such a principle did not exist in Ukraine before, so it must work in practice and not on paper.

The EU, a pioneer in introducing the concepts of extended producer responsibility (EPR) and the "polluter pays" principle, provided Ukraine with expert support in developing regulatory documents. Draft laws "On packaging and packaging waste," "On waste electrical and electronic equipment" have already been set, and "On batteries and accumulators" are in the works.

The Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources claims that Europe has been transitioning to a new waste management system for 20-30 years. There are fears that reforms in Ukraine will take decades, during which garbage will occupy new and new territories.

As Rubryka reported, the Ukrainian city of Liubotyn signed a commitment to reduce the amount of residual waste. It became the second candidate city after Lviv on the way to becoming a zero-waste-certified city.

Rubryka also reported in the article why the activities of the organization No Waste Ukraine are timely.