In Kazakhstan, the annual liquidation of spontaneous dumps does not reduce their number. According to official data, the processed portion of waste in 2022 may reach 24 per cent only. According to experts, waste control should start with waste reduction and sorting in every household.
Removing the spontaneous dump and organising a playground and recreational area instead – this is the way how Aleksandr and Yulia Petrovs, residents of Atbasar, Akmola region, have struggled with the heap of rubbish near their house for many years. Spouses Aleksandr and Yulia Petrovs are the organisers of the initiative group “Small happiness” who want to refine the territory.
Getting the akimat and volunteers involved, they collected 100 kilograms of plastic and 500 kilograms of glassware from the dump and then removed the unprocessible waste. In the near future, a new playground with houses, slides and swings will take place here.
“In our microdistrict, there are no entertainment playgrounds among private houses. I think, this is the problem. Moreover, we have a spontaneous dump here that has been here for over 20 years. Therefore, children have to play on the roadway, near the dumps. But I want my children to spend time safely and with interest,” Aleksandr Petrov said.
Garbage war is lost
According to the Ministry of Ecology, Geology and Natural Resources, in 2021 Kazakhstan detected 7,238 spontaneous dumps of household waste, and 2,748 this year.
To find unauthorised sites of waste disposal, the so-called dumps, akimats and departments of ecology use the satellite monitoring via geoservice. According to the agency, every year the country produces nearly 4.5 million tonnes of garbage. According to experts, the state has lost the garbage war a long time ago.
“Unfortunately, the state works in this direction on the leftover principle. In other words, once there’s the dump, it will be liquidated. I haven’t seen any development programmes in this field so far. As to the assessment of the government work, local municipal bodies have lost this war, unfortunately. Therefore, the number of dumps is increasing, but there is no punishment for them but article 505 Administrative Code on violation of improvement rules. But this is not enough. In general, the war was totally lost,” eco-activist Shasalim Shagalimov said.
According to him, now Kazakhstan has no control over the performance of services and companies that are engaged in waste removal.
According to the Ministry of Ecology, Geology and Natural Resources, in the first quarter of 2022, the country has 3,005 domestic waste disposals, including only 635, or 21 per cent, that meet the environmental and sanitary norms. The portion of processed waste in 2021 was 21.1 per cent. This year, it is going to reach 24 per cent, and up to 50 per cent by 2050. So far, the largest portion of garbage remains at waste disposals and cannot be processed.
“Garbage is harmful to the environment because it poisons the soil, water, flora and fauna of the region where it is located. After heavy rainfall, rainwater passes through all this debris, gets into the soil and reaches the groundwater with its impurities,” said Shagalimov.
Moreover, hazardous wastes – toxic, explosive, oxidative and other – are often brought to dumps. According to the Environmental Code of Kazakhstan, wastes are divided into classes by the degree of impact:
- Class 1 – extremely hazardous (mercury-containing devices);
- Class 2 – highly hazardous (hazardous medical waste, including contaminated, radioactive, toxic waste and used engine oils);
- Class 3 – moderately hazardous (AA and AAA batteries, office equipment, paints);
- Class 4 – l0w-hazard (chip boards with various glues and other chemical elements added, nitrogen fertilizers);
- Class 5 – non-hazardous (household waste).
In Kazakhstan, mercury-containing lamps, car batteries, office equipment, X-ray film and others must be recycled. But hazardous medical waste, persistent organic pollutants, dielectric fluids that are found in transformers and other radio and electrical devices, are not recycled in the country.
According to the Chair of the Board of the Association of Legal Entities “European-Asian Association ‘Green economy’, Zhantu-Ibragim Mamashev, hazardous waste processing enterprises should work in the region where they have material and technical base. Otherwise, they may create unauthorised landfills in transit.
Environmental awareness is needed
One of the ways to address the waste problem is to have people have conscious attitude to it – reduce and sort waste.
“Spontaneous dumps are created by everyone who discards a package of waste every day. It is negligence and impunity of the inhabitants themselves. But to prevent this, we need to change the established stereotypes, to teach to discipline, culture and to try to sort the garbage,” said activist Aleksandr Petrov.
Eco-coach Damir Karimov agrees with this position. He noted that garbage must be sorted at the source of its formation, that is, in the houses where it is just beginning to be collected.
“Household waste is all the waste that we generate during our life. It does not include liquid waste that flows into sewers, construction debris, furniture, medical waste, household appliances. Basically, household waste is food scraps, various packages and textiles. But mixed waste is not recyclable. And if we start sorting waste in our homes, the percentage of household waste recycled will increase significantly,” he said.
For the safe management of waste, both for individuals and for legal entities, the legislation of Kazakhstan has created a legal basis within the framework of the Environmental Code and orders of the Ministry of Ecology, which should minimise the emergence of spontaneous dumps. Also, since 2018, the agency together with National Corporation “Kazakhstan Garysh Sapary” is carrying out space monitoring of waste locations across the country and work on their elimination. But all these measures do not help and every summer dumps emerge like mushrooms, flooding everything with garbage.
According to Aiman Seksenova, eco-consultant and managing director of ECO Network, the experience of Scandinavian countries and the use of mechanisms of extended liability of commodity producers can cardinally change the situation.
“There is a well-established practice throughout Europe where residents bring the goods packaging back to producers and get a small reward instead. Such a reverse vending machine system (reverse vending machine is a machine, which exchanges empty containers for a small monetary reward) works with us, but it is not very common among the population, so we still have a lot to strive for,” Seksenova said.
In her opinion, Kazakhstan could take all the best practices of European countries without spending years studying models of ecological culture and apply the most acceptable mechanisms. But so far, according to her, such a discussion has not even taken place at the ministerial level.