How Bishkek is trying to solve the problem of a chaotic landfill?
The current city dump was opened in Soviet times and designed for a certain amount of garbage while now the landfill contains tenfold more than it should be.
All garbage accumulated in the capital of Kyrgyzstan is dumped in the central sanitary landfill. But for decades, the landfill has been in its worst condition.
The biggest problem with landfills is the unpredictable composition of the trash. Household waste contains everything— paper, plastic, metals, food waste, batteries, building materials, mercury lamps, medical products, animal remains, etc.
Due to the lack of a garbage processing plant, garbage in the landfill is sorted manually by residents of nearby settlements and then private buyers purchase from them for further sale and processing.
The landfill burns year-round, thereby creating smoke for the nearest new residential areas. And without this, for the second year in a row, Bishkek is in first place in the worst air quality index (according to airvisual.com).
Also, the acting director of the Bishkek landfill, Dinara Kutmanova, points to the contamination of groundwater by leachate formed at the landfill. Toxic substances seep through the soil and probably end up in a reservoir nearby.
So how is the Bishkek municipality going to solve a problem?
In 2013, the government of Kyrgyzstan and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development signed a loan agreement to finance the project “Improving the solid waste management system in Bishkek”.
The mission of the project is to preserve the favorable quality of the environment and improve the sanitary and epidemiological situation in Bishkek.
Strategic objectives of the project:
· To organize a modern process of solid household waste management in Bishkek;
· To establish full-cycle management: collection, removal, reception, sorting, recycling, processing, and disposal of waste;
· To fundamentally resolve the issue of recycling and safe disposal of solid waste for the next 25–30 years to stop the dangerous impact of the existing landfill.
Problems to be solved within the project:
· Reclamation of the existing city landfill will be carried out and a new sanitary landfill will be created with the arrangement of appropriate infrastructure, construction of an access road;
· A section for sorting and mechanical-biological treatment of solid waste will be built;
· The missing containers and garbage trucks will be purchased, container sites will be repaired and equipped;
· Gradually, containers for collecting plastic and paper will be installed in the city;
· Options for optimizing implementation using new technologies are being worked out, in particular, household waste is considered as a renewable energy source, and the generation of fuel from household waste;
· A program to optimize routes for the collection of solid waste and software for collection of payments will be introduced. GPS equipment will be installed to monitor the collection and removal of solid household waste from the city;
· Electricity and water supply of the new sanitary landfill and the site for sorting and mechanical-biological waste treatment will be expanded.
· The project will completely change the solid waste management system in Bishkek.
But due to corruption schemes and a pandemic, the project is scheduled to be completed by 2021.
At the local level, the Bishkek Mayor’s Office together with public organizations, “tries” to teach Bishkek residents to take a responsible approach to the consumption and sorting of waste. Thus, young activists have developed the Tazar App which is designed to reduce the amount of generated waste.
Will Bishkek be able to cope successfully on the path to cleanliness?
