Waste management in Russia
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Waste management in Russia refers to the legislation, actions and processes pertaining to the management of the various
waste types Waste comes in many different forms and may be categorized in a variety of ways. The types listed here are not necessarily exclusive and there may be considerable overlap so that one waste entity may fall into one to many types. * Agricultural w ...
encountered throughout the Russian Federation. The basis of legal governance for waste management in Russia at the federal level is outlined through Federal Law No. 89-FZ, which defines waste as “the remains of raw materials, materials, semi-finished products, other articles or products that have been formed in the process of production or consumption as well as the goods (products) that have lost their consumer properties”. Throughout its existence, the government of the Soviet Union introduced state-wide legislative frameworks and recycling programs for effective waste management in the pursuit of a
circular economy A circular economy (also referred to as circularity and CE) is a model of production and consumption, which involves sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing and recycling existing materials and products as long as possible. CE aims ...
to reduce new material production.Ermolaeva, Y. (2018). Problems of institutionalization of waste management in Russia. ''Amazonia Investiga''. Vol 7, No 12 (2018). 7. However, the
dissolution of the Soviet Union The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...
consequently erased these initiatives, yielding the onset of a
Post-Soviet Russia The post-Soviet states, also known as the former Soviet Union (FSU), the former Soviet Republics and in Russia as the near abroad (russian: links=no, ближнее зарубежье, blizhneye zarubezhye), are the 15 sovereign states that wer ...
largely dependent upon
landfill A landfill site, also known as a tip, dump, rubbish dump, garbage dump, or dumping ground, is a site for the disposal of waste materials. Landfill is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of the waste ...
s for waste management.Fedotkina, O., Gorbashko, E., & Vatolkina, N. (2019). Circular Economy in Russia: Drivers and Barriers for Waste Management Development. ''Sustainability'', 11(20), 5837. In 2019, almost 70 million tons of municipal solid waste was produced in Russia, with over 90% of this amount being deposited in landfills.Semenova, G. (2021a). “Garbage reform” in Russia and the introduction of a new tax payment. ''E3S Web of Conferences'', 244, 10031. The Federal Service for Supervision of Natural Resource Usage stated in the same year that landfills in Russia occupied an area roughly equivalent to the size of the Netherlands. In line with growing political and social pressures attributed primarily to the inadequate management of municipal solid waste across the country in the past two decades, the
Government of Russia The Government of Russia exercises executive power in the Russian Federation. The members of the government are the prime minister, the deputy prime ministers, and the federal ministers. It has its legal basis in the Constitution of the Russia ...
introduced widespread rubbish reforms in 2018 under the National Project on Ecology, which contains the country's roadmap for achieving a municipal solid waste
recycling rate The following table gives the percentages of municipal waste that is recycled, incinerated, incinerated to produce energy and landfill A landfill site, also known as a tip, dump, rubbish dump, garbage dump, or dumping ground, is a site for the ...
of 36% by 2024.Martus, E. (2020). Municipal Solid Waste Management in Russia: Protest, Policy, and Politics. ''Russian Analytical Digest'', 23(261), 2–6.


History


Soviet Union (1922 – 1991)

Enacting large-scale
industrial production Industrial production is a measure of output of the industrial sector of the economy. The industrial sector includes manufacturing, mining, and utilities. Although these sectors contribute only a small portion of gross domestic product (GDP), the ...
was a central focus of the government of the Soviet Union.Ziegler, C. (2004). Soviet studies: Environment. ''International Encyclopaedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences'', 22, 14723–14728. To maximally preserve the supply of raw materials, the reuse of new products was heavily emphasized through the establishment of state-run organizations that provided collection services. Widescale recycling programs were introduced by the Soviet government in the 1970s, whereby recyclable materials were sorted into five distinct categories: “waste paper, polymeric materials, tires, textiles, and broken glass”. Consequently, it is estimated that almost 30% of total paper and 45% of all glass bottles produced were recycled throughout the 1980s. Consumer goods did not feature materials as plastic, aluminum and tin throughout the vast majority of the Soviet Union's existence, although these were common in other global markets. In 1986, the government of the Soviet Union introduced the concept of extended producer responsibility within the state to hold organizations accountable for their waste production through a legislative framework. The legislative framework mandated that organizations must provide adequate processing facilities and recycling operations to accommodate the output of any new materials or products. Due to the widespread philosophy of waste material repurposing and stringent legislative frameworks witnessed across the state, municipal waste management was generally not observed as a significant issue throughout the existence of the Soviet Union. The dissolution of the Soviet Union saw the collapse of the various waste management systems that contributed to the state's efforts in developing a circular economy.


Russian Federation (1991 – Present)

The newly formed Russian Federation sought to instigate mass reform in the waste management sector to revive the success witnessed under the Soviet government. In 1996, a federal waste reform program called “Waste” was launched by the Russian government, which sought to “create a regulatory and technological framework to conduct a unified government policy regarding waste management at every administrative level”. Additional goals of the program included a structured national recycling initiative and the pilot testing of emerging technologies for improved recycling and decontamination efficiency for both municipal and
industrial waste Industrial waste is the waste produced by industrial activity which includes any material that is rendered useless during a manufacturing process such as that of factories, mills, and mining operations. Types of industrial waste include dirt and ...
.World Bank Group. (2013). Waste in Russia: Garbage or valuable resource? (1 of 1; p. 93). International Finance Corporation. https://www.ifc.org/wps/wcm/connect/Topics_Ext_Content/IFC_External_Corporate_Site/Sustainability-At-IFC/Publications/Publications_Report_Waste_in_Russia 80% of the required funding was projected to come from budgetary funds, whilst secondary raw material sales would yield the remaining 20%. The objectives of the program were not realized primarily due to an ensuing lack of financial and political support.   Subsequently, a new law administered by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology was introduced in June 1998, known as Federal Law No. 89-FZ “On the Production and Consumption Waste”. The law defined waste as “the remains of raw materials, materials, semi-finished products, other articles or products that have been formed in the process of production or consumption as well as the goods (products) that have lost their consumer properties”. Additionally, the law provides general guidelines for the governance of waste management across various levels of government as follows: * Federal: design and enactment of unified waste management policies across the nation. The Ministry for Natural Resources and Ecology is directly responsible for the implementation of these policies. * Regional: environmental reporting to assist the federal government in the effective implementation of waste management policies, in addition to designing and enacting separate regional waste management policies in consonance with federal policy. * Local: design and enactment of waste collection and removal services at the community level. Federal Law No. 89-FZ currently receives periodic amendments in line with the evolving waste management requirements of the country, which are vetted and evaluated by the Federation Council.


Waste classification

Waste is classified in accordance with Order No. 786 of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology, which details the 2002 Federal Classification Catalogue of Waste that provides a regulatory framework pertaining to the systematic categorization of waste in Russia. Waste products are evaluated by the "origin, physical and aggregative state, hazardous properties and environmental risk" inherent to the waste type. Operators and personnel seeking to handle hazard classes between 1 and 4 require waste management licenses administered by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology.


Waste production

Russia generated approximately 7.3 billion tons of waste in 2019. Industrial waste and municipal solid waste are the main constituent waste types of this figure, exhibiting annual production values of over 6.6 billion and 65 million tonsNetherlands Enterprise Agency. (2020). Waste management in Russia. Netherlands Embassy in Moscow. https://www.netherlandsworldwide.nl/binaries/en-nederlandwereldwijd/documents/publications/2020/08/26/factsheet-on-waste-management-in-russia/200824+Waste+management+in+Russia.pdf respectively in 2019.


Industrial waste

Industrial activities are responsible for the predominant majority of all waste emissions in Russia.Zakharenko, I. K., Pukhova, M. M., & Kharchilava, K. P. (2021). Features of Production and Consumption Waste Management in Russia. IOP Conference Series. ''Earth and Environmental Science'', 666(3). Over 94% of total waste in 2018 was attributed to the nation's
mining sector Mining is the Extractivism, extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein (geology), vein, coal mining, seam, quartz reef mining, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of ...
alone. The main pollutants were derived from the extraction of fuel and raw materials utilized for energy generation, such as coal. Additionally, 1.9% of the country's total waste volume was produced from nonferrous metallurgy and 0.6% from the chemical industry.


Municipal solid waste

Municipal solid waste accounts for approximately 1-2% of all waste generated, which is equivalent to 65 million tons in 2019 for Russia. More than 90% of all municipal solid waste is disposed into landfill sites, with only 5-7% being recycled. Food is the main source of waste composition in landfills, comprising over 34%. Other sources of municipal solid waste include: * Paper * Polymers * Glass * Wood * Street waste * Metal * Textiles.


Nuclear waste

An estimated total of 500 million tons of nuclear waste was reporting in 2020 to have accumulated throughout Russia.Gerden, E. (2020, June 18). ''Russia to improve nuclear waste management''. https://www.tunneltalk.com/Russia-17Jun2019-Russia-to-improve-national-system-of-nuclear-waste-management.php In June 2011, the
State Duma The State Duma (russian: Госуда́рственная ду́ма, r=Gosudárstvennaja dúma), commonly abbreviated in Russian as Gosduma ( rus, Госду́ма), is the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia, while the upper house ...
of the Federal Assembly of Russia passed the Federal Law on "Radioactive Waste Management", which was ratified by the
State Council State Council may refer to: Government * State Council of the Republic of Korea, the national cabinet of South Korea, headed by the President * State Council of the People's Republic of China, the national cabinet and chief administrative auth ...
the following month. The law provided a legal framework for the management of nuclear waste across Russia and has since been bolstered by the "Ensuring Nuclear Radiation Safety" federal target program, which seeks to neutralize nuclear waste generation with an equal level of disposal by 2025. Nuclear power 38
nuclear reactors A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control a fission nuclear chain reaction or nuclear fusion reactions. Nuclear reactors are used at nuclear power plants for electricity generation and in nuclear marine propulsion. Heat from nu ...
were in operation throughout Russia in 2021, which collectively produced approximately 20.7% of the country's electricity. In the Soviet era, nuclear power generation was developed cognizant of a closed nuclear fuel cycle desired by the government. This philosophy was centered around the goal of repurposing spent fuel products and recycling uranium and plutonium that were recovered from fuel products, ultimately reducing nuclear waste and maximizing reusable
fissile material In nuclear engineering, fissile material is material capable of sustaining a nuclear fission chain reaction. By definition, fissile material can sustain a chain reaction with neutrons of thermal energy. The predominant neutron energy may be ty ...
. In 2016, Russia's state-owned Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation developed the BN-800 fast breeder reactor, which is projected in 2022 to transition to exclusively utilize mixed uranium-plutonium fuel in continued efforts to close the nuclear fuel cycle.


Waste management initiatives


Early waste management reform

In addition to the "Waste" federal target program launched in 1996 by the Russian government, the responsibility of solid waste management was redelegated to municipal authorities in 2004 as part of a broader waste reform strategy. This shift encouraged local communities to develop solutions for the efficient collection and disposal of municipal solid waste, however this ultimately failed due to insufficient financial resources, a lack of supporting waste management infrastructure and inadequate experience at the community level. Similarly, the federal government issued an official decree in 2011 ordering regional and local authorities to devise and implement sustainable waste management programs. The envisioned programs did not come to fruition primarily due to the lack of private investments within the solid waste disposal sector.


National Project on Ecology

In 2018, the National Project on Ecology was approved by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The federal project, which is directed by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology, is underpinned by ten key outcomes to maximize environmental protection and rejuvenation in Russia: # Clean country # Integrated system for municipal waste management # Infrastructure for handling especially hazardous waste # Fresh air # Clean water # Improvement of Volga River # Preservation of
Lake Baikal Lake Baikal (, russian: Oзеро Байкал, Ozero Baykal ); mn, Байгал нуур, Baigal nuur) is a rift lake in Russia. It is situated in southern Siberia, between the federal subjects of Irkutsk Oblast to the northwest and the Repu ...
# Preservation of unique water objects # Conservation of biological diversity and
ecological tourism Ecotourism is a form of tourism involving responsible travel (using sustainable transport) to natural areas, conserving the environment, and improving the well-being of the local people. Its purpose may be to educate the traveler, to provide funds ...
development # Forests preservation. The country's roadmap to achieving a municipal solid waste
recycling rate The following table gives the percentages of municipal waste that is recycled, incinerated, incinerated to produce energy and landfill A landfill site, also known as a tip, dump, rubbish dump, garbage dump, or dumping ground, is a site for the ...
of 36% by 2024 is outlined under outcome no.2 of the project. On January 14, 2019, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an executive order to establish the public
nonprofit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
entity "Russian Environmental Operator". The company's primary purpose is to reinforce municipal solid waste management legislation through the acquisition of land, plant and other assets deemed necessary for the treatment and processing of waste for recycling and/or disposal. The municipal solid waste recycling rate target of 36% was criticized by
Greenpeace Russia Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth to ...
in December 2019 when official documents from the government of Moscow (and later the federal government) were released, detailing that waste incineration would be deemed as a form of recycling.


Impacts of waste mismanagement


Landfills

In 2019, almost 70 million tonnes of municipal solid waste was produced in Russia, with over 90% of this amount being deposited in landfills. The Federal Service for Supervision of Natural Resource Usage stated in 2019 that landfills in Russia occupied an area roughly equivalent to the size of the Netherlands. Outcome no.1 of the National Project on Ecology is “Clean Country”, which represents the objective of removing all 191 of the illegal landfills identified by the Russian government in 2018. Across several oblasts of Russia,
leachates A leachate is any liquid that, in the course of passing through matter, extracts soluble or suspended solids, or any other component of the material through which it has passed. Leachate is a widely used term in the environmental sciences whe ...
from landfills have been observed to contaminate groundwater with hazardous constituents such as heavy metals and toxic chemicals, reducing biodiversity and soil fertility. The solid waste disposal sector represents the second-largest source of methane gas emissions in Russia, predominately through the form of
landfill gas Landfill gas is a mix of different gases created by the action of microorganisms within a landfill as they decompose organic waste, including for example, food waste and paper waste. Landfill gas is approximately forty to sixty percent methane, ...
.Wünsch, C., & Tsybina, A. (2022). Municipal solid waste management in Russia: Potentials of climate change mitigation. ''International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology'', ''19''(1), 27–42. In addition to other waste-to-energy technologies, landfill gas recovery is not commonly exhibited across Russia. Mass protests erupted in Russia in 2018 when over 200 schoolchildren were hospitalized from inhaling poisonous gas emissions originating from a landfill in the town of Volokolamsk in Moscow Oblast. The protests proliferated across other localities in 2019, including Krasnoyarsk,
Omsk Omsk (; rus, Омск, p=omsk) is the administrative center and largest city of Omsk Oblast, Russia. It is situated in southwestern Siberia, and has a population of over 1.1 million. Omsk is the third largest city in Siberia after Novosibirsk ...
, Arkhangelsk, and Nizhny Novgorod, where protesters demanded the closure of waste incineration plants, halting of landfill construction and for general reform within the Russian solid waste sector.


Nuclear waste

In the concluding months of World War II, the Soviet government designated the islands of
Novaya Zemlya Novaya Zemlya (, also , ; rus, Но́вая Земля́, p=ˈnovəjə zʲɪmˈlʲa, ) is an archipelago in northern Russia. It is situated in the Arctic Ocean, in the extreme northeast of Europe, with Cape Flissingsky, on the northern island, ...
as testing grounds for the development and trial of
nuclear weapons A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...
.Gizewski, P. (2019). Military Activity and Environmental Security: The Case of Radioactivity in the Arctic. In J. DeBardeleben & J. Hannigan (Eds.), ''Environmental Security and Quality After Communism'' (1st ed., pp. 25–41). Routledge. Between September 21, 1955, and October 24, 1990, over 130 nuclear detonations were tested on the archipelago, including the detonation of Tsar Bomba in October 1961 above
Severny Island Severny Island (russian: Се́верный о́стров, Severnyy ostrov, Northern Island) is a Russian Arctic island. It is the northern island of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago. It was historically called Lütke Land after Friedrich Benjamin ...
. However, the Soviet government began exclusively conducting underground nuclear tests following Andrei Gromyko's signing of the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty on August 5, 1963, in Moscow. As a result, the adjacent
Barents Barents may refer to: *René Barents (born 1951), Dutch judge and legal scholar *Willem Barents (c. 1550–1597), Dutch navigator and explorer *Barents AirLink, a Swedish airline *Barents Island (), an island in the Svalbard archipelago, part of ...
and Kara Seas were frequently polluted throughout this period with nuclear waste and spent nuclear fuel, contributing to a radioactive environment that has threatened the Russian and Norwegian fishing industries (which rely heavily upon the Barents Sea) and livelihoods of the surrounding indigenous population. The Kara Sea has been reported to contain more nuclear waste along its seafloor than any other location across the world's oceans. The long-term effects of nuclear fallout in this region have not been epidemiologically tested as of 2020.


See also


Notable waste disposal sites in Russia

* Aleksinsky Quarry *
Lake Karachay Lake Karachay (russian: Карача́й), sometimes spelled Karachai or Karachaj, was a small lake in the southern Ural mountains in central Russia. Starting in 1951, the Soviet Union used Karachay as a dumping site for radioactive waste from Maya ...


Russian Wikipedia articles

* Waste * Garbage in Russia * Garbage crisis in Russia * Reform of production and consumption waste management in the Russian Federation


Other related articles

* Environmental racism in Russia *
Environmental issues in Russia Many of the issues have been attributed to policies that were made during the early Soviet Union, at a time when many officials felt that pollution control was an unnecessary hindrance to economic development and industrialization, and, even though ...
*
Environment of Russia The environment of Russia Biota Climate The climate of Russia is formed under the European peninsula. The enormous size of the country and the remoteness of many areas from the sea result in the dominance of the continental climate, which is ...
* Climate change in Russia * Greenhouse gas emissions by Russia


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Russia Waste management Waste management by country Landfill Nuclear power Waste management