Kyrgyzstan has the waste problem along with economic and political issues. First, hundreds of spontaneous dumps can be seen around the city. Second, rubbish bins in Bishkek are often overfilled.
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We should do justice to Tazalyk municipal enterprise. It tries to carry out its duties in full, but it seems it does not have enough human resources.
All experts in ecology claim that the problem can be solved by waste sorting. Let’s find out what it is and why it is needed with ecologist Dmitry Vetoshkin.
Waste is the invention of the mankind! Nature does not generate waste as it is. Everything that is created by nature, all substances on the Earth circulate and the waste of some organisms become the resource for others. This is how life has been functioning on the planet for millions of years.
A man invented substances that are untypical for the nature: polymers, household chemicals, etc. They cannot be embedded into natural cycles. It causes the environmental depletion in some places, and pollution of natural areas in other places.
Therefore, waste sorting is the essential need to make us live sustainably on the planet, which is an isolated system. We cannot use resources and pollute natural areas endlessly.
The fact that waste in Kyrgyzstan is not sorted led to the plethora of waste dumps around all inhabited localities. Bishkek is not an exception. The city’s disposal site is in fact a ticking bomb.
Everything is here: chemical, biological and especially hazardous waste. When they are mixed, they are very hazardous. The all-year-round waste combustion aggravates the situation even more. When mixed waste burns, it emits a toxic cocktail, whose composition can hardly be identified. When it is raining, waste liquids get into ground waters and pollute the soil.
It becomes a long-term ecological problem and undermines the health of the people.
Thus, dioxins are the most poisonous substance on the planet, which, according to the WHO, can cause malignant tumours and lead to foetal mutations in the mother’s body. These substances are the product of combustion of polymers and chlorine.
Waste sorting is a radically different approach to waste management. Sorted waste components are the recyclable materials for the production of new goods. For example, plastic, glass, metal are re-melted and as raw materials are delivered again for production.
Paper, textiles are reduced to powder and their fibres are used for production, too.
Hazardous and toxic waste containing heavy metals, e.g. electronic waste, need to be disposed of with great care. Separately, they can be treated instead of polluting the environment.
Therefore, waste sorting is the imitation of the nature, when we create not linear, but cyclic models of production.
The situation in Kyrgyzstan has remained the same for many years. The country received multimillion grants and loans to solve the “waste” issue, but the situation is the same. The most hazardous type of storing of household solid waste is being practised as usual.
Mixed waste gets to waste dumps that burn, the waste is available for birds and animals. The waste is not protected from the wind, the bottom of the waste site is not waterproof, and all liquids penetrate into the ground. The problem of waste dumps is especially acute in the biosphere territory of Lake Issyk Kul.
The problem is not solved because savvy people learned to earn on this problem.
The recyclable materials are collected partially, and the residents living in nearby residential areas sort the waste that gets into the dump. There’s even a waste mafia in terms of no regulation of this issue.
First of all, Kyrgyzstan needs to solve the issue of toxic and especially hazardous waste, including the issue of deceased cattle that is thrown into rivers or to the dump. We should settle the issue of such waste collection and safe storage.
What is more important is that we need to extinguish burning dump sites. They are the problem across the republic and pose a threat to the health of the nation. Moreover, Kyrgyzstan is a party to the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution. However, the smoke from the smouldering dump site in Bishkek partially gets into Kazakhstan.
We also should examine and strengthen the public control over the implementation of international projects on household solid waste management.
You can start waste sorting right now. In early November 2020, the Tazar app was presented. Its creators are Bishkek-based Ainura Sagyn and Aimeerim Tursunalieva.
The app works not only in the capital, but also in Osh, Talas, Naryn and Cholpon Ata. Now the people can take recyclable materials to the nearest station or, if there is large amount of them, have them transported via the app.
To do this, citizens need to download the app to their phone, read the sorting instruction, collect at least five kilograms of household solid waste and call the delivery service via the app.
Why five kilograms? Because it’s unprofitable for waste collectors to transport the smaller amount of waste. So, the citizens, for example, neighbours living on the same floor or all neighbours can come together, find a place in the yard to store all waste and call waste collectors once they have large amount of waste.
The app has the “Benefit” section. The organisers cooperate with various charity organisations. If you want, you can donate your clothes, toys, books, home appliances and furniture, which will be donated to the people in need. The stuff you donate must be clean and in working order.
You can receive scores for every kilogramme of recyclable materials. They can be exchanged for an ice cream cone at Fresco, a bottle of Maksym, a cup of coffee at Sierra, an annual pass to the museum, etc.
The organisers noted that the platform will be expanding. In the long run, they are planning to download the photos of materials often used at home and subject to recycling.
Various kinds of waste should be collected separately: carton, glass, metal and plastic. Various kinds of plastic must be collected separately as well because its recycling requires various temperatures and various conditions. Usually, every package has a marking – a digit in a triangle – that indicates the kind of plastic.
It is better to collect recyclable materials in cartons or paper bags and to deliver them clean (for example, plastic dishware, where food is delivered, or pizza packages must be emptied).