Sorting and separate collection of waste. Separate and use: how and why to sort waste. And what to do next

There are many problems in Russia that lead to low rates waste recycling. One of them is the lack of an established waste sorting system and the skepticism of ordinary people who do not see the point in this, and therefore throw everything in one pile. To justify their indifference, people usually give trivial excuses based on general misconceptions. Recycle has listed the most popular myths about sorting and recycling that are not true.

There are no processing plants in Russia

In Russia there really is no centralized system waste collection and processing. However, this does not mean that sorting waste is a useless activity. In many cities of the Russian Federation there are processing plants that make money from recyclable materials, and are therefore interested in recycling them. For example, the Plarus plant in Solnechnogorsk and the RB-group company in Gus-Khrustalny process plastic, and the Kolyakovo enterprise and the Cardboard and Paper Mill produce new products from waste paper. Other types of waste can also be recycled.

We have few recycling collection points

One of the common misconceptions is that in Russia there is nowhere to take recyclable materials. In fact, reception points separate waste countless numbers. In Moscow alone there are several hundred of them, and all are marked on the map. You can choose a point convenient for you, which is located near your home.

The garbage smells bad

It is important to understand the difference between food and household waste: the latter cannot rot, emitting a stench. In the case of waste paper, there is nothing that smells bad. Glass, plastic and aluminum containers can be rinsed of food debris in a few seconds - faster than a plate after dinner. Washing Tetra Pak takes a little longer, but it will only take a minute. Clean plastic, glass, paper and aluminum are automatically equal to ordinary dishes that are stored on kitchen shelves.

To sort waste you need to buy expensive containers

If you want to save on buying special containers for collecting recyclables, you can use regular cardboard boxes and large bags (preferably reusable) instead. The garbage doesn't care where it lies. For those who don't like it aesthetically corrugated boxes and giant bags, there are others budget options. For example, IKEA offers a variety of inexpensive containers. They are doubly convenient because they are sold with lids and can be stacked on top of each other, saving space in the apartment.

Garbage takes up too much space

There is one in any apartment square meter for a cardboard box or two small bins. Sorting waste doesn't require a million colorful containers in the kitchen. It is enough to allocate some space on the balcony or in the closet. It will be a little more difficult for owners of one-room apartments without a loggia and a storage room, however, in this case, a solution can be found. For example, place a recycling box under a table or chair in the kitchen, or designate space for it in a closet.

In addition, waste can be reduced in volume: folding tetra pak packaging, squeezing aluminum and plastic cans, inserting one yogurt cup into another. Containers will fill up with waste more slowly, which means you will have to travel to a recycling collection point less often.

Taking out trash takes a lot of time and a car.

With proper waste storage, you will have to remove garbage no more than once every month or two. To do this, it is not necessary to have a personal car - just ask for help from friends or acquaintances who have a car. But first, make sure that there is no good recycling collection point within walking distance of you. If there is one, the problem will be automatically solved. If not, there are several other options.

In many Russian cities there are companies that provide waste removal services from homes. In Moscow, this is the Clean Gorod project. In addition, there is a social network of volunteers on the Internet for free removal of separate waste. The “Collector” project operates in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yaroslavl, Ivanovo, Novosibirsk, Chelyabinsk, Novokuznetsk and Kyiv.

If you want volunteers to take your trash to a recycling collection point, you need to register on the website and leave a request. It will automatically appear on the map and will be visible to other users of the social network.

Sorting and processing waste wastes a lot of natural resources

Many believe that sorting and recycling waste provokes unnecessary consumption of water, electricity and gasoline, which is wasted in the process of transporting recyclables. However, the production of new products requires several times more resources than recycling waste. And the water from one bathroom, which many fill every day, is enough to wash more than 120 bottles and cans.

If you're concerned about the exhaust fumes generated during trips to recycling centers, imagine how much of it is produced every day on the way to work. This is a reason to use it more often public transport. A trip by metro once a month compensates for the journey to the recycling collection point by car.

In Russia nothing is produced from garbage

Abroad, everything from clothing to building materials is made from garbage. In Russia, the market for goods made from recycled materials is smaller, but it exists. And most people don't even know that they are using products made from recycled waste. Hygiene supplies, magazines, books and newspapers, furniture, packaging and - this is only a small part of what is sold in Russia.

Batteries are not recycled in Russia

Just a year ago this was indeed the case. However, in December 2013, a battery recycling line was launched at Chelyabinsk. This was implemented with the participation of the Media Markt chain of stores, which launched a large-scale campaign to collect used batteries. Batteries are now accepted in 63 Media Markt supermarkets in 28 cities of Russia. In just 7 months of the program, it was possible to collect more than 300,000 batteries weighing more than 7 tons.

Old things belong in the trash heap

The classic excuse - “everything in life will come in handy” - leads to a balcony filled with junk. Therefore, try to audit your belongings at least once a year. Among them, there will probably be those that you have not needed for a long time, but will be useful to someone else. After all, not all old things belong in the trash. Books you have read can be given to Tverskaya, where there are special shelf for bookcrossing.

In the case of clothes and shoes, there are many more options. These include further processing of textiles into new fabrics and helping those in need. In St. Petersburg, there are projects “Peremolka” and “Thank You”, which are installed throughout the city. They recycle unwearable clothes, and donate the rest of their wardrobe items to various charities.

In addition, old things can be returned to, where they give a 15% discount, and. In Moscow there is also the Doctor Lisa Foundation and the Good Box project, which collect things for those who really need them. Another great option- give clothes to the church: here they will be happy and will find a worthy use. IN major cities Russia also regularly hosts free markets and charity events where you can bring unnecessary things.

In June 2017, utility workers in Athens went on a ten-day strike, leaving the city mired in rubbish. Famous physicist and public figure Niels Bohr proclaimed: “Humanity will not perish from atomic bomb and endless wars, it will bury itself under mountains of its own waste.” This phrase is over 100 years old, but its relevance is only growing every year. Separate waste collection and further processing will help solve the problem of excess waste around the world.

The current environmental situation in cities - everyone’s contribution is important

We see increased interest among city residents in environmental issues. After all, everyone wants to live in a clean city, walk through parks and enjoy the view of flower beds with a lot of flowers. Decide ecological problems cities is impossible without the participation of residents. Many might argue that they don't have the time or energy to plant avenues of trees and fight polluting industries. But there is simple things Something that everyone can do without much effort is separate garbage collection.

Why is separate waste collection needed?

Sorting waste depending on its composition has a beneficial effect on the state of environment. The decomposition period for some types of plastic is 100-200 years, and for an aluminum can it is 500 years. Think about how many plastic bottles and cans you threw away over the past week. Now multiply the resulting number by the number of residents of your city. If you live in a metropolis, then you will probably end up with an amount of about 1,000,000!

According to the standard waste collection and disposal scenario, all waste ends up in landfills. There it decomposes under the influence of natural causes, poisoning the earth and groundwater. But up to 80% of waste can be recycled for reuse. They are made from this kind of plastic garbage bags, garden utensils, packaging and even clothes and shoes. Old metal is used to make cars, household appliances, garden and sports equipment.

In addition to improving ecological situation, collecting waste in groups also solves economic issues. New waste processing plants are opening, which provides new jobs. What could have become waste is turned into raw materials for enterprises. This is called the fashionable word “recycling” (from the English recycle - recycle).

Difficulties in separate waste collection

The benefits of waste sorting are obvious, but there are also disadvantages. To put a waste recycling plant into operation requires large investments. Special equipment is not cheap, and such a business will not begin to make a profit soon. Finding employees on the sorting line is also not easy, because the work is not prestigious. Another difficulty is people's lack of understanding of the importance of separate collection of household waste.

What kind of waste is there?

All waste is divided into 4 categories:

• Suitable for recycling and recycling.
• Toxic waste requiring special disposal (this also includes medical waste).
• Non-toxic organic waste.
• Waste used for combustion and thermal energy production.

Let's take a closer look at some categories of garbage.

Plastic

Decomposition period plastic bags- 100-400 years, plastic bottles and other plastic products - 200-400 years. Some species completely decompose within 1000 years. Plastic disrupts gas exchange in the soil and in water bodies. Plastic bags are often thrown away with leftover food, which attracts animals and birds. They swallow pieces of bags, which leads to their death. The same situation is with fish. In addition, during the process of decomposition, plastic releases toxic substances, and in the event of a fire, toxic smoke will lead to poisoning or even death of people and animals. The solution in this case would be to collect plastic waste with further melting and recycling. Made from recycled plastic:

• bottles;
• containers;
• carpets;
• Construction Materials.

10 kg of waste will produce 8 kg of new products. The cost of garbage, even taking into account the collection and storage of waste, is small, and it is several times cheaper finished products.

Glass

Although the period of decomposition glass jars and the bottles are impressive - 1000 years old - they cause little harm to the environment. In particular, animals and people can be injured by sharp edges broken glass. The situation with the collection of glass containers in our country is not bad. Collection points for milk bottles, alcoholic drinks and lemonades existed in Soviet time and are acting now. The collected glass containers are either melted down or simply reused.

Paper

In Soviet times, both adults and children were involved in collecting and distributing waste paper. Schools even established standards for the amount of waste paper handed in per class. At paper waste collection points, the population was given coupons for the purchase of books in exchange for old newspapers, paper wrappers, notebooks and cardboard. As for the environment, damage to nature is caused not by used and discarded paper, but by deforestation to make new products. It is estimated that to save 15 trees it is necessary to collect 1 ton of waste paper.

Cans

These cans are made from galvanized or tin-coated iron. The zinc + tin compound is toxic to many living organisms. The decomposition period is 100 years. Collecting aluminum waste, its further melting and reuse will improve the environment.

Disposal methods

How do you get rid of that garbage, including that which cannot be reused? The following methods are distinguished:

• burning;
• burial;
• composting;
• briquetting.

Let's look at each of them in more detail.

Burning

Although this method is popular and cheap, it has significant shortcomings. The main one is the toxic effect of combustion products - smoke and ash - on the environment. When waste incineration occurs on an industrial scale, special equipment equipped with cleaning systems is used.

Burial

Waste is buried in the ground at special landfills, the placement of which is subject to the following requirements:

• outside residential areas and medical institutions;
• outside water protection zones;
• outside public recreation areas.

There are also requirements for the composition of waste. The collection of waste for disposal does not include radioactive and toxic substances, as well as anything that can be reused. Buried garbage, when decomposed, releases toxic fumes that poison the air, soil and groundwater.

Composting

To understand the essence of this method, just remember the compost pits in the country. In this case, organic waste is piled up where it decomposes naturally. The result is a useful fertilizer. Composting in industrial scale produced in the presence of oxygen and in its absence. The output is organic fertilizer. This method makes it possible to recycle up to 30% of waste.

Briquetting

If you have watched the cartoon about the robot WALL-E, then this method of disposal is familiar to you. WALL-E, alone on the abandoned planet Earth, compacted garbage into briquettes and stacked them on top of each other, creating garbage skyscrapers. Briquetting - new method. The waste is first sorted into categories and then formed into briquettes. The fate of this briquetted waste is not completely clear, as is the feasibility of the method. Perhaps it will be used as recyclable material. In compressed form, garbage takes up less space, it is easier to transport, which is undoubtedly good.

Recycling stages

We usually don't think about what happens to our trash after it ends up in the trash cans. Yes, we see that garbage trucks come and empty them, but what next? Knowledge full cycle waste disposal is very important to understand the importance of separate waste collection.

Collection and removal

Garbage collection is carried out by residents of apartment buildings or the private sector, as well as industrial facilities. If the region has established sorting of waste by category, then in the yards there are 4-5 containers for plastic, cardboard, glass, household waste, etc. Utilities or recycling companies handle waste collection and transportation.

Storage

Before waste is sent for recycling or undergoes any method of disposal, it is stored in special landfills. The rules for collection, storage and disposal of waste regulate how much waste will be stored, in what quantity and how much space it will occupy.

Transportation

To move waste from landfills to disposal or recycling facilities, special equipment is needed. This includes loading mechanisms and machines, garbage trucks.

Disposal

This is the last point in the waste collection and disposal chain. Disposal methods have already been discussed above. Each has advantages and disadvantages. Methods such as burning and burial remain popular in our country.

How to properly sort waste when recycling

There are a number of rules for waste collection intended for reuse or processing. Here are the main ones:

1. Discarded plastic, aluminum or glass containers must be cleared of food debris and washed. Simply rinse under warm running water.
2. There are combined types of packaging that are not subject to recycling. These are, for example, bags of juice, milk, wine. They consist of plastic, cardboard and aluminum.
3. Window glass should not be thrown into containers intended for glass containers. They have a different structure. And also you don’t need to throw it into this container electric lamps.
4. Caps should be removed from plastic bottles, and it is advisable to crush tin cans.
5. Recyclable paper does not include cash receipts, egg trays, toilet paper or tissues.
6. When handing over waste paper, it is advisable to remove staples, paper clips and tape from the papers.
7. Not all plastic can be collected. Suitable waste labeled PET1 and HDPE2. You can return bottles of water, lemonade and other drinks, containers for shampoos, household detergents and cleaning products. And here are the bottles from vegetable oil And plastic bags cannot be recycled.

Experience in waste sorting from different countries

In the European Union countries you can see 6 containers for different groups garbage. They are painted in different colors, and these colors are the same for all EU countries. European countries have long been faced with the problem of excess waste. The small area only made the situation worse. In the 80s, the Netherlands completely switched to separate waste collection. Now there are only two landfills there. In addition, in the Netherlands for Active participation Residents receive benefits for housing and utility bills when collecting and recycling waste.

The experience of Japan is also noteworthy, where the issue of solid waste collection and disposal is acute due to its limited territory. In particular, garbage is used to create fill areas to increase the area of ​​the state at the expense of coastal areas. Promoting the reuse of things that may have been thrown away has become national peculiarity Japanese. This is manifested in the condemnation of wastefulness and in the use of things as long as their useful properties are at least partially preserved.

In the USA, they also actively sort garbage. This area is regulated at the legislative level, and a fine is provided for violating the rules of separate collection. More than 500 factories across the country recycle waste. Many enterprises are trying to minimize waste management by producing products in environmentally friendly packaging.

Finland has done very well in waste management over the past 15-17 years. The country uses the technology of storing waste underground in special containers. This installation utilizes up to 7 m 3 of waste.

But not only the developed countries control the amount of garbage thrown out. Thus, in India, the state of Maharashtra banned the use of plastic bags. For violation of the law, a fine of $380 is provided, and in case of repeated violations they may receive prison term. Kenya has also banned plastic bags since 2017. But the punishment for violation there is harsher - a fine of up to $40 thousand or a prison term of up to 4 years.

The issue of separate collection and recycling of waste nationwide, of course, is resolved at the state level. But every person who cares about the environment can do simple things. On the one hand, sort the garbage and hand it over to collection points, and on the other, reduce the amount of waste, following the example of the Japanese, “squeezing” the maximum out of every thing.

The problem of separate waste collection, which has been effectively solved in Europe and the USA for a long time, remains in Russian cities a stumbling block on the path to compliance with basic environmental standards for living in an urban environment.

We are no longer talking about the province, where garbage containers have long turned into breeding grounds for urban rodents, becoming places of their well-fed habitat. As for the two Russian capitals, in both Moscow and St. Petersburg all attempts to introduce a system of separate waste collection among citizens were a complete failure.

According to the results of a survey by the Vesti TV channel, “Why doesn’t the separate waste collection system work in St. Petersburg?”, the majority of residents of the Northern capital (43 percent) see the root of the problem in the mentality of city residents, who since childhood have been accustomed to dumping everything in one trash can or bag. Slightly fewer (39 percent) forward reproaches to utility workers and blame them on “weak organization of the process.” Sixteen percent complained that the need for such a procedure was poorly explained to them. Two percent don’t touch garbage at all, it’s not a lordly thing.

Meanwhile, Deputy of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg Boris Kiselev raised the question with Governor Valentina Matvienko about what exactly the city government is doing to collect and recycle plastic containers. The deputy emphasizes that more and more goods, especially drinks, are sold today in plastic packaging or in plastic bottles (PET.PET). And since a plastic bottle does not decompose in the ground, “an increase in the amount of such waste can lead to irreversible environmental consequences". As a result, thousands of bottles lie in landfills, since, according to the author of the request, "mechanisms for collecting and recycling plastic bottles at waste collection sites and city landfills are far from perfect."

“In Finland, whose experience we so often turn to, all supermarkets are equipped with collection and recycling points for plastic bottles,” recalls deputy Kiselev. The author of the request suggests that such collection points “should be located in accessible places in every area of ​​the city, for example in shopping centers"He also cites statistics according to which in St. Petersburg no more than ten percent of consumed PET bottles are recycled and the main problem is the lack of a properly functioning waste collection system and its subsequent processing.

Today, according to the St. Petersburg branch of Greenpeace, about 2,200 containers for separate waste collection have been installed in the city. So the problem lies not in the lack of special equipment, but in its poor condition.

“We are not going to fight with anyone, we just want to restore order in the city, so that containers for separate waste collection are installed correctly, so that their lids are closed and people simply cannot throw anything there,” says the expert on effective use resources Igor Babanin. — As a result of the inaction of public utilities, a paradoxical situation has developed in the city. Requirements for separate waste collection are not met; no one monitors the maintenance of container sites equipped for selective waste collection. For more than a year, regulatory authorities, for example, have not been able to ensure compliance with the basic requirement requiring that containers be installed with a receiving window, into which separately collected waste must be placed, towards people, and not against the wall!”

At the end of February this year, the Greens sent a complaint to the Governor of St. Petersburg, Valentina Matvienko, about the inaction of officials Housing Inspectorate And Housing Committee St. Petersburg. Meanwhile, to separate municipal waste(for household, bulky and waste containing recyclable materials) about 250 million rubles were spent from the city budget. The money was used to manufacture and install containers and equip special sites. However, things are still there.

Not in the best possible way The “garbage issue” is also being resolved in Moscow.

Although the experiment on separate collection of household waste has been operating in the capital for five years. During this time, special bins with three holes and outlandish machines for accepting plastic bottles actually appeared on the streets. It’s just that Muscovites either don’t know how to use all these innovations or don’t want to. And in city yards there are still old, rickety containers filled to capacity with a stinking mixture of potato peelings, old clothes and broken bottles. Environmentalists say the experiment on separate waste collection was a failure. Officials, in turn, admit: if new waste incineration plants are not built in the near future, Moscow will simply drown in its own waste.

It is almost impossible to say how much waste Moscow throws out per year. According to representatives of environmental movements, the amount of garbage per capita set by city authorities is greatly underestimated. It is also impossible to establish with certainty how many people live in Moscow. So, according to the most conservative estimates, this amounts to about 4.5 tons of waste per year. The lion's share of this garbage is burned and buried at landfills in the Moscow region. And only a tiny part is recycled. Surprisingly, there are simply no food waste processing plants in the capital. All organic compounds, which could turn into compost, that is, into the ground, are simply buried along with other solid household waste - rubber, textiles, stones - or burned.

“The burial sites will soon exhaust their capabilities, there will be nowhere to bury, and the authorities of the Moscow region refuse to provide us with new land,” Ivan Maleev, a specialist in the environmental inspection control department of the Moscow Department of Environmental Management, told Novye Izvestia. — So in the near future several new waste incineration plants will appear in Moscow. While two factories are operating, another one is being reconstructed, another one is being built. Of course, we have many opponents in this regard, but I will say this: “Clean air is only in Siberia. And if you want to live in a metropolis, use a warm shower, toilet and garbage collection services, you will have to breathe what you have.”

However, breathing anything in Moscow is not a novelty. Cars have practically driven people off the streets. So the introduction of a separate waste collection system for the new mayor of Moscow is a task of third-rate importance. And for now it is being resolved at least this way. Europe, as we know, is not a decree.

Why separate garbage?

Every resident Chelyabinsk region produces approximately a ton of waste per year. These include potato peelings, chocolate packaging, water bottles, unnecessary items, hygiene products and much more. Not all of them decompose in nature. Thus, the residents of the South Urals, without realizing it, contribute to pollution.

All garbage in our region is collected in one bucket, and then dumped in a heap to landfills. Its deposits emit methane gas, sometimes catch fire, some harmful substances seeps into the ground and groundwater. Russia has made a decision: the country needs to switch to separate waste collection and recycle garbage. The Chelyabinsk region supported the decision.

Where is separate waste collection established?

There is no separate waste collection in Russia. There have been experiments in St. Petersburg and Moscow, limited to a few areas. Other cities are now actively moving towards such a solution. For example, Chelyabinsk will install separate containers for waste by 2020, neighboring Yekaterinburg - by 2019.

You can rely on experience European countries. For example, in Sweden, only 7% of garbage goes to landfill, and the rest of the waste is actively recycled, and even several times. The Swedes send glass, plastic and paper to specialized enterprises that process them; part of the waste is burned and used for electricity and heat. At the same time, throwing away garbage is a real science, because the paper label must be separated from the glass bottle, and the multilayer packaging must be separated and each material must be thrown into its own container.

How to distribute garbage?

It is expected that in each yard there will be multi-colored containers for separating waste. Maximum separation is 7 colors.

Chelyabinsk residents will start small. In each yard there will be containers for collecting organic and inorganic waste, as well as a third one for batteries and mercury lamps. Glass will be separated from plastic at a landfill. However, no one is stopping Chelyabinsk residents from doing this on their own, and carrying only part of the garbage into containers, and sending the rest to specialized organizations.

How to sort garbage at home?

No one wants to keep 5 or 7 buckets under the sink instead of one, but without this, separate waste collection cannot be organized. It must be remembered that when each type of waste is separated, there will be less waste, which means that instead of one large bin it is easy to accommodate several small ones. Paper can be folded into paper bag, cardboard - in a cardboard box. Some people store hazardous waste, like batteries, in their jacket pockets to throw away when passing by a special container. The plastic can be placed in a plastic bag.

Some trash can manufacturers have already realized that people need one container with many compartments. They also produce multi-colored bags that match the color of the container. Some of them are self-degrading.

How to take care of the environment now?

There are several organizations in Chelyabinsk that already accept hazardous waste, plastic bottles, glass and even paper.

Every third Sunday of the month the city holds a social event “Share”. Volunteers accept all types of waste, except food, in six districts of the city.

In new districts of Chelyabinsk there are already containers for collecting plastic. In Kopeisk, the Vtor-Kom company goes to the villages belonging to the urban district and collects waste from the categories of rags, waste paper, household chemicals, pet bottle, glass container, battery, aluminum can. Raw materials are produced from waste or fuel is obtained.

Where to hand over garbage in Chelyabinsk - find out in our map

Now the region is divided into several clusters, each of which needs its own regenerator. Once it is determined, a tariff for waste removal will be set. For example, in Magnitogorsk, apartment residents pay 87.5 rubles per person for the service of removing, sorting and further transporting waste. In Chelyabinsk, the registrar operator will begin work on January 1, 2019.

Sorting stations will be built in Satka, Karabash, Snezhinsk and Trekhgorny. There the waste will be distributed according to its intended purpose. Some will go to enterprises to be processed, some will be buried in new landfills, taking into account modern environmental requirements. This system will be fully launched in 2020.

By the way, containers for separate waste collection will be installed by the same regenerator. Those who break the rules and use containers for other purposes will be fined.

Muscovites need to instill a culture of waste management, says the mayor of the Russian capital, Sergei Sobyanin. The first step on this path, according to the mayor, is the creation of a separate collection infrastructure.

We hear dialogues about bags every day in the supermarket. Everyone knows that polyethylene “T-shirts” take hundreds of years to decompose, but they continue to buy them. And now at home there is already a huge bag of packages, which sooner or later will also go to trash can.

True, we must pay tribute, they began to appear in Russian stores reusable bags and eco-friendly bags. More and more often they can be seen not only on the shelves, but also in the hands of our fellow citizens. In general, everything is relatively clear with the consumer culture: take goods with less packaging, give up endless bags. But you can’t do without this completely. And what to do next? How to deal with garbage to minimize the harm caused to nature? According to experts, one of the most effective options for solving the problem is to switch to separate waste collection.

In general, this practice is not so new for Russia. In Soviet times, there were collection points for, for example, glass containers and waste paper in almost every yard. People received coupons for books for old notebooks and newspapers, and money for glass bottles. Thus, on the one hand, it was possible to save money on the production of new bottles, and on the other, excellent recyclable materials for new paper products appeared. In the 1990s, everything was forgotten and abandoned, so now the system must be created from scratch.

In the capital they began to seriously engage in this quite recently. The first attempts were made in 2014–2015. At that time, about 26 stationary waste separate collection points and 27 mobile ones were installed in Moscow. Only three districts were covered: Northern, Northeastern and Southwestern. Of course, for a massive transition to new system This was not enough, but it became clear that, in general, with a good level of infrastructure development, Muscovites are ready to start sorting again.

Today, separate waste collection means at a minimum the separation of waste into food and non-food. Most of the latter are subject to further processing. For example, they make from waste paper toilet paper, egg cartons and other paper products, and the glass is sent to cullet for recycling and the creation of new glass products (so even broken glass is accepted).

670 recycled cans = 1 bicycle; 54 kg newsprint = 1 tree; using 10% broken glass = 3% gas savings.

In December 2017, the President of the Russian Federation signed a law establishing separate waste collection. The corresponding article of the law with amendments to federal legislation in the field of industrial and consumer waste will come into force on January 1, 2019. Contracts have already been concluded for the creation of infrastructure for sorting, transporting and processing waste with five companies: Charter LLC, EcoLine LLC, MKM-Logistics LLC, MSK-NT LLC, Spetstrans LLC. True, there is no single legal act that would clearly regulate their activities, so in each district companies set their own rules. Appearance reception points also depend on the operator. For example, these could be pavilions with holes or mesh containers.

The categories of waste accepted also vary. Traditionally they are divided into paper, plastic, glass and aluminum. Some companies have different compartments for different categories, while others have some combined. In both cases, most often one vehicle is involved in the removal, from which many residents conclude that the garbage goes to a landfill and no further processing does not exist.

Previously, we had four cars, but the waste still gets mixed up, sometimes people throw something in the wrong place, so we decided not to just drive several cars.”

Experts from JSC “Research Institute of Environmental and General Design” note that if mixing glass, metal and plastic is permissible, since they do require further sorting at the plant, then the percentage of paper and cardboard suitable for recycling in this case is significantly reduced. Contaminated waste paper cannot be recycled and must be removed separately.

The principle of installing containers sometimes raises questions. For example, in the Khoroshevsky district, separate waste collection requires real effort from residents - to get to the mesh container, you need to either move a heavy garbage can or show miracles of dexterity.

“As a deputy, I constantly receive complaints that these containers exist, but they do not fulfill their function; responsible citizens have no opportunity to throw sorted garbage there,” Lyubov Yakubovskaya, an employee of the Security Center, told the website portal wildlife And municipal deputy Khoroshevsky district.

In addition to optimizing the operation of existing points, it is necessary to create new points. Now there are still few of them for a full transition to the new system. For example, in the same Khoroshevsky district there are 34 streets and, according to the map, only three separate waste collection points. It turns out that there are 11 streets per container. “According to government contracts, there is one point for recyclable materials per 12.5 thousand residents, this is extremely insufficient,” the head of the environmental public organization“ECA Movement” Tatyana Chestina. “It is necessary for municipal authorities to get involved and, if necessary, subsidize containers for recyclables in every yard.”

Another serious obstacle to the introduction of a culture of separate waste collection is the lack of any system of informing citizens. Often people do not even realize that such points exist in their area. To cope with this problem, the capital authorities launched interactive map recycling collection points - however, today it is completely useless due to the lack of updates.

In addition, in order to trust the separate waste collection system (SSR), people must understand why they sort waste, how exactly to do it and where it will end up in the future. “We need to install signs and instructions, create a transparent waste logistics scheme, organize information support on the Internet,” Olga Zatsepina, head of the environmental design department at EcoStandard group, told the website portal. Many, for example, still don’t realize that in the Moscow region there are more than 400 processing enterprises and almost all of them are experiencing a shortage of recyclable materials. In addition, according to Zatsepina, it is necessary to conduct centralized environmental education in various levels: in schools, universities, offices of commercial companies and government agencies.

In general, if you have a sufficient number of containers, sorting requires minimal effort. At home, it is enough to allocate a small space for waste paper and have only two containers for garbage: one for non-recyclable waste and the second for everything else. There are also not many rules for waste collection. It is enough to carefully read the labeling on containers in order to weed out non-recyclable types of plastic and not confuse paper and tetrapack, from which most juice and milk cartons are made. It is enough to rinse and compress the containers so that they take up less space. Some operators may also ask you to remove the cap and label from the bottle.

The process of collecting waste can be further simplified by installing disposers - shredders in the sink in apartments, says the founder of the Moscow branch of the movement “ Separate collection» Valeria Korostelev. "All food waste they go there, then mixed garbage is generated once a week,” the leader of the movement explained to the website portal. In addition, such a solution will reduce the load on landfills near Moscow, since food waste makes up about 30% of all municipal waste in the capital.

The main treatment facilities in Moscow are capable of processing sewage sludge and producing biogas. “Disposers can be implemented according to a similar scheme in which water meters were introduced: the shredder is a numbered device, everyone who installed it and registered it in Moscow will have their garbage collection fees reduced,” the ECA Movement suggests. “The second option is for the city to install the shredders using housing subsidies.”

Of course, while RSO in Moscow is just beginning to develop, before the system is fully launched, Muscovites and city authorities need to take many more steps to meet each other. But practice shows that the capital definitely has the opportunity to transition to civilized waste management. Volunteer movements and projects provide significant assistance to residents of the capital: they publish useful tips, teach how to get a container installed in your yard, and organize mobile collection points where official operators have not yet reached. Often, Muscovites just need to open a map, find the nearest point and start acting.