Konstantin Tsitsin visited the construction site of the waste sorting plant

During his visit to the region the CEO of the Housing and utility Reform Fund Konstantin Tsitsin went to the construction site of the waste sorting plant in Smolensk region.

In 2013 in Smolensk region the regional program for the modernization of municipal infrastructure in the field of solid waste treatment has been approved as part of implementing the Federal Law of July 21, 2007 № 185-FZ.

The total cost of the program activities is 271.2 million rubles, including borrowed funds - 234.8 million rubles, allocated from the Fund - 22.3 million rubles, from the regional budget - 14.1 million rubles.

The solid waste landfills are one of the important components of the sanitation system of the city; ecological well-being of the Smolensk people depends on their safe functioning. The initiative to construct solid waste landfills and bringing them into compliance with existing rules and regulations within the next five years is essential. Failure to comply with regulatory requirements to development, operation of existing waste landfills and recultivation of the closed landfills leads to regular fires, pollution of the surface and groundwater, which worsens the ecological situation in the areas adjacent to the landfills, reduces the lifetime of the landfills. Pollution with production and consumption waste causes significant ecological and economic damage.

These facts were the basis for the development of a set of measures aimed at reducing the negative impact of production and consumption waste on the environment in Smolensk region and for the adoption of the program of modernization of municipal infrastructure of solid waste treatment.

The purpose of this program is:

- to increase the share of solid waste disposed and placed in accordance with the requirements of the Russian legislation on landfills, waste treatment plants and other facilities;

- to increase the share of recycled solid waste used to get a secondary resource, including the generation of heat and electricity;

- to create 146 new jobs;

- to improve the environmental situation ;

- to establish sustainable and effective mechanisms to attract private investments to the sphere of solid waste treatment.

As a result of implementing the program the waste sorting plant will be built on the territory of the Koschino rural settlement of Smolensk region, as well as a landfill for disposal of solid waste equipped in compliance with environmental, sanitary and fire regulations, and the standard of placement and disposal of solid waste in the amount of 120 thousand tons per year.

The waste sorting plant and the solid waste landfill are to start operating in the first quarter of 2014.