MINSK, 16 March (BelTA) – Belarus will start building 28 facilities to sort and recycle secondary raw materials in 2020, Belarusian Housing and Utilities Minister Aleksandr Terekhov said in an interview with the Belarus 1 channel, BelTA has learned.
“The most important thing in 2020 is that we start constructing 28 regional facilities which will not only sort and recover secondary raw materials but also recycle it,” Aleksandr Terekhov said.
The decree signed by the head of state in January stimulates the development of such facilities. One of the decree's parts deal with enterprises. Those who compost, recycle or burn refuse derived fuel shall be entitled to compensation. Another part of the decree is related to the preferences for business. It offers incentives such as compensation of the difference between the costs of environmental packaging and polymeric packaging. But the compensation shall be provided only in case the environmental packaging is made in Belarus from secondary raw materials. The decree will come into effect in July.
Plans are in place to recycle and use quarter of household waste in 2020. There are several methods how to do it. For example, recovery of secondary raw materials, recovery of organic waste and using it as compost, and use of waste as energy source. This year Grodno will launch the first plant to produce refuse derived fuel from household waste for further use at the cement plant.
Europe has placed focus on producers as well. Producers are responsible for their product live-cycle and waste they may produce. Such enterprises organize collection and recycling of the waste or pay to centralized companies.
According to Aleksandr Terekhov, in Belarus such extended producer responsibility approach helps to set up and develop separate waste collection system and proper infrastructure. All regional centers, except for Vitebsk, have waste sorting plants. The building of such plant in Vitebsk will be completed in 2020. It will be a modern enterprise with semi-automatic sorting. A total of 21 of the administrative territorial units of Belarus have the separate waste collection system in the private sector.
