MINSK, 25 May (BelTA) - Belarus plans to recycle 20.3% of municipal solid waste (MSW) in 2018, Nina Kulbeda, the chief specialist of the state-run company Operator of Secondary Material Resources, told a press conference in Minsk on 25 May, BelTA has learned.
“In 2017 the share of extraction of secondary material resources from municipal solid waste was about 17%. In accordance with the national strategy up to 2035, Belarus plans to recycle 20.3% of municipal solid waste in 2018. In other words, the country plans to re-use the fifth part of municipal solid waste as raw materials. The current infrastructure enables us to achieve this goal,” Nina Kulbeda said.
In 2017 Belarus collected 654,000 tonnes of secondary material resources, which was up by 9% over 2016. These included waste paper, glass, polymer waste, worn tires, used oil, old household and computer equipment. “Some 207,000 tonnes of secondary material resources were collected in January-April 2018. This year we hope the positive dynamics will remain in place. In the past four months the collection of electronic and electrical equipment went up 1.8 times, that of waste oil by 43%, waste paper by almost 12%, plastic waste by 7.3%. The collection of used tires went up as well,” Nina Kulbeda said.
Nina Kulbeda also talked about the main areas of work of the company in 2018. “We will continue to pay compensation from the funds that come from producers and suppliers of goods and packaging to the companies that collect and send MSW to use or either disposal. The development of separate waste collection infrastructure will be continued. This year we are planning to acquire over 18,000 containers for the collection of waste glass, paper, plastic, mixed collection of MSW. Several large projects will be financed this year out of the funds of major manufacturers and suppliers. These include the modernization of Spartak Paper Mill, setting up a plant to produce Refuse-derived fuel, introducing a deposit-refund system and also the construction of a waste processing plant in Vitebsk,” Nina Kulbeda informed.
In Belarus there are 420 organizations that collect secondary material resources and prepare them for use.
In the residential sector there are around 87,000 special containers for the collection of waste paper, glass, plastic, of them 9,000 containers were installed in 2017. There is also a system of collection of spent batteries, energy-saving lamps in shopping sites: almost 3,300 containers for batteries and more than 700 for mercury-containing lamps.
