Separate waste collection. Separate garbage collection. A guide for beginners. German waste sorting

Most of us are used to the fact that garbage is a bucket or a bag somewhere in the kitchen, where almost everything that for some reason turns out to be unnecessary ends up: a banana peel, a burnt out light bulb, old clothes or scribbled paper. And few people think about what happens to all these items after they fall into the garbage chute or container in the yard.

the site explains how and, most importantly, why you need to sort garbage and where to take the separated waste.

In total, there are 53 recycling points and 26 separate waste collection points in the capital. In addition, there are 27 mobile waste collection points in the north of the city. These are special vehicles with containers that run around the districts on schedule.

The main feature of this approach is that not all of the collected garbage is transported to the landfill, but part of it ends up in processing plants. Some of them recycle waste paper, others - plastic, others - glass, and the fourth - metal.

What can be recycled

Separate waste collection and recycling points accept paper and cardboard, plastic, metal, glass and batteries. Moreover, there are separate requirements for each type of waste.

For example, aluminum cans, unpainted aluminum foil, cans and small household scrap metal can be donated as metal containers. Aerosol bottles will not be accepted at collection points. At the same time, all containers must be freed from food debris, the lids removed, and aluminum cans are recommended to be crushed.

Bottles, jars and broken glass are considered glass containers. It also needs to be cleaned of food debris and remove the lids.

Paper waste includes newspapers, books, cardboard boxes, magazines and wrapping paper. Not going to be recycled cash receipts and transport cards, disposable tableware, egg trays, napkins and toilet paper. To hand over the waste paper, it is necessary to separate the corrugated cardboard from it, remove the paper clips, staples, adhesive tape, polyethylene substrates.

For plastic, only waste labeled PET1 or HDPE2 can be handed over. These can be bottles of water and other drinks, packaging from cosmetics, detergents and cleaning products. Do not accept bottles from under vegetable oil, plastic bags, polystyrene and products with other markings. Plastic must be freed from the contents, crushed and remove the lids from the cans.

To get rid of old batteries, you do not need to specially prepare. At the reception points they are collected in plastic containers and sent to a special site of the company, where they are stored in dry plastic barrels.

Why collect garbage separately

Waste sorting allows not only to improve the ecological situation due to the fact that fewer unnecessary things are sent to the landfill. Some of the garbage is also a raw material for various production.

Cars are made from recycled metal household appliances, sports equipment and even children's toys. Scrap aluminum makes it possible to make 20 times more cans using the same amount of energy and reduces air pollution by 95 percent during production.

Bottles, jars, glass and glass-ceramic tiles, water filtration compounds, smalt and mosaic glass are made from glass waste.

Recycled paper is used to make cardboard for packaging, packaging kraft paper and toilet paper. At the same time, Tetra Pak, which consists of 20 percent polyaluminum, is used in the construction industry and for the production of stationery.

Old plastic goes to hangers, chairs and garden tables, garbage bags, work clothes, covers for equipment and machines, siding and other finishing materials, fleece, sportswear and shoes, as well as plastic containers.

Facts and figures

- One ton of waste paper saves 15 mature trees.

— The term of decomposition of a plastic bottle is 180-200 years.

- The decomposition period of an aluminum can is 500 years.

— Battery decomposition period — 110 years. They contain heavy metals- lead, cadmium and mercury, which are carcinogens, that is, they provoke cancer.

Separate waste disposal has long been practiced abroad: containers with compartments for plastic, waste paper, food and toxic waste are installed not only local authorities, but also the townspeople themselves at home. In Russia and Ukraine, environmental responsibility is developing slowly. And in St. Petersburg, they recently began to completely eliminate containers for separate collection, installed several years ago: management companies did not come to pick them up for months, and residents reluctantly used them. A correspondent for The Village in St. Petersburg talked to a person who sorts garbage in his apartment and found out what is needed for separate collection at home.

Where to begin

When my girlfriend and I started sorting garbage at home, we immediately made one big mistake - we didn’t think about what to do with it next. They just started putting waste paper, plastic and glass bottles into separate boxes and bags. When a whole mountain accumulated after a few weeks, I realized that I had absolutely no idea where to put it all. remembering school experience, I thought that it would not be difficult to hand over waste paper or bottles. I conducted monitoring in my district - Primorsky - and realized that it is impossible to do everything in one place.

Each type of waste has its own collection points, and waste paper is collected only by weekdays from 12:00 to 14:00, which is very inconvenient. Bottles are also different: one type or color in one area, another in another, plastic ones were not taken anywhere at all. As a result, I accumulated a whole mountain of bottles and I did not know what to do with them. Then I learned about the monthly “Thank you for the trees” campaign, where you could immediately hand over everything that you have. Now it is no longer held, but there are many one-time promotions.

Sorting mechanism

Now we are doing the simplest sorting: there are containers for plastic, glass, waste paper and, of course, food waste. They do not take up much space, it is enough to allocate a small corner. True, it was not possible to accustom all six tenants of the apartment to throw everything into different containers. I started alone, and six months ago my sister joined me. At first, everyone doubted the rationality of our actions, but the media began to talk more about sorting, and the neighbors showed more understanding.

If you have a lot of energy and are willing to spend a little more time on it, you can separately collect paper and cardboard, divide glass by color, save metal separately, remove paper clips from tea bags or magazines. This, of course, will make the work of recycling enterprises easier or even increase the earnings of those involved in recycling, but only if everyone else does it. When one person in the city does this, there is not much benefit.

Dispose of food waste in the regular trash. Some people use the so-called vermicomposters at home - these are boxes in which worms process the food waste: there is no smell, and the fertilizer is ready. Worms do not run away, everything is neat. There are other examples: one retiree, who runs the Rooftop Garden project, decided to create a continuous cycle of consumption and processing on the roof of her apartment building. She put compost bins in there, where the whole house dumps their food waste. Recycled recyclables are subsequently used to fertilize the land in the garden.

Where to take

To start For those wishing to sort waste, I recommend finding out the location of glass, paper, food and hazardous waste collection points near your home. I am an environmental engineer by training and did not know this. When you pass this stage, separate disposal no longer seems so problematic.

With paper or waste paper, the easiest thing is now: there are many points and private companies that are ready to come and pick up all the waste paper from your office or home weighing 200 kilograms or more. It's hard in an apartment. But one of my acquaintances agreed with the management company, and now they collect cardboard and paper with the whole house, which they then take out special services. The management campaign spends the profit from disposal on the improvement of the local area and on technical needs.

I throw out metal garbage like cans in a separate bag, and then I take it to the general trash in the yard, from where it is taken away almost instantly.

With hazardous waste, especially with batteries, the situation is also gradually improving: they were allowed to be collected by any company or any person in general. I can walk around the city with a box and collect them to turn in. At many gas stations and shopping malls special containers for collecting batteries, mercury lamps and medical waste. Like an eco-mobile, only stationary.

Now there are a lot of garbage disposal points in the city, they can be found on the site map Recyclemap.ru. There are collection points for glass, paper, hazardous waste and even clothes for each district. For me, the most convenient action " Separate collection". Recently, they began to operate - this Saturday they will go around the city for the second time to collect recyclables. There is another way for the most lazy or busy - ecotaxi which is scheduled to be launched soon. Judging by the responses on social networks, many people liked the idea. If they do not raise the price, then for 200-300 rubles it will become great alternative"separate collection".

Recycling

Most often, waste is immediately sent to a landfill, bypassing storage facilities. There are two waste sorting stations in St. Petersburg, where workers select useful fractions from a common pile of waste. There, the percentage of recovery of recyclables is very low: from 3 to 15% maximum. Abroad, up to 90% of waste is sent for recycling.

You need to understand: whatever one may say, preliminary sorting is necessary and very important. If the city doesn't do it, then we can do it. In any case, food waste must be separated from everything else: it stains, rots and spoils everything around. The same plastic bag can no longer be processed if it is covered in banana and vinaigrette residue. Imagine how on the conveyor from all our compressed garbage people are trying to pull out a cardboard or a plastic bottle. This is unrealistic and no one will do it.

Greenpeace.org
Greenpeace.org
Greenpeace.org
Greenpeace.org
Greenpeace.org

Education

Officials and the administration have their own opinion on this matter: they claim that garbage containers no one uses for separate disposal and that is why they are dismantled. And residents say they are ready to use it if they create infrastructure for them and take out the garbage on time, and the lids of the tanks will not be locked. I heard somewhere that if at least 4% of the citizens start doing something, the rest will start to catch up with them. This will set the trend - such a marketing rule.

There is an opinion: "Here I am alone, what's the point then?" But if a person at least rinses the bottle and turns it in for promotions or at a collection point, this will already be a huge step. If only because it will attract the attention of other people. I went to school for an extracurricular ecology lesson and taught the children about separate recycling and how to make the planet cleaner. Children in the fourth and fifth grades already understand well the meaning of separate waste collection and recycling. It became incomprehensible to me: if children understand, then why don't adults do this? Maybe such an irresponsible generation, which should be replaced by the growing environmental activists? We asked them why people don't do it then, and the schoolchildren confirmed our theory: people are either lazy or simply don't know where to take their garbage.

The authorities can influence the consciousness of citizens and their desire to properly dispose of waste. This cannot be supported by activists alone: ​​they simply do not have the opportunity to oversee the whole city. AT European countries ah, for a long time they have been holding campaigns to inform the population about how to use bins, how to properly sort garbage. And then they just put it on and that's it. Russia will come to this one way or another, but without the initiative of the state, it will take much longer.

Why separate trash?

Every resident Chelyabinsk region produces about a ton of waste per year. These are potato peels, chocolate packaging, water bottles, unnecessary things, hygiene products and much more. Not all of them decompose in nature. So the people of South Urals, without realizing it, contribute to pollution.

All garbage in our region is collected in one bucket, and then heaps are brought to landfills. Its deposits emit methane gas, sometimes catch fire, some of the harmful substances seep into the ground and groundwater. In Russia, they made a decision: the country needs to be transferred to the separate collection of waste, and the garbage to be recycled. The Chelyabinsk region supported the decision.

Where is the separate collection of garbage?

There is no separate waste collection in Russia. There have been experiments in St. Petersburg and Moscow, limited to several districts. Other cities are now actively moving towards such a solution. For example, Chelyabinsk will install separate waste containers by 2020, neighboring Yekaterinburg by 2019.

You can rely on the experience of European countries. For example, in Sweden, only 7% of the waste goes to the landfill, and the rest of the waste is actively recycled, and even several times. The Swedes send glass, plastic and paper to specialized enterprises that recycle them, some of the garbage is burned and used for electricity and heat. At the same time, garbage disposal is a real science, because the paper label must be separated from glass bottle, and separate multi-layer packaging and discard each material in its own container.

How to distribute garbage?

It is assumed that in every yard there will be colorful containers to separate waste. The maximum separation is 7 colors.

Chelyabinsk residents will start small. Each yard will have containers for collecting organic and inorganic waste, as well as a third one for batteries and mercury lamps. Separate glass from plastic will be at the landfill. However, no one prevents Chelyabinsk residents from doing this on their own, and carrying only part of the garbage into containers, and sending the rest to specialized organizations.

How to sort garbage at home?

No one wants to keep 5 or 7 buckets under the sink instead of one, but without this, separate waste collection cannot be organized. It must be remembered that when separating each type of waste, there will be less, which means that instead of one large bin, it is easy to accommodate several small ones. Paper can be folded into a paper bag, cardboard into a carton. Hazardous waste, like batteries, some keep in jacket pockets to throw away when passing by a special container. Plastic can be placed in a plastic bag.

Some trash can manufacturers have already figured out that people need one container with many compartments. They also produce multi-colored bags that match the color of the container. Some of them are self-decomposing.

How to take care of the environment now?

There are several organizations in Chelyabinsk that are already accepting hazardous waste, plastic bottles, glass and even paper.

Every third Sunday of the month, the city holds a social action "Divide-ka". Volunteers accept any type of waste, except for food, in six districts of the city.

In the new districts of Chelyabinsk, there are already containers for collecting plastic. In Kopeysk, the Vtor-Kom company travels to the villages belonging to the urban district and collects waste from the category of rags, waste paper, household chemicals, pet bottles, glass container, battery, aluminum can. Waste is used to produce raw materials or fuel.

Where to drop off garbage in Chelyabinsk - find out in our map

Now the region is divided into several clusters, each of which needs its own regional operator. After its determination, the tariff for garbage collection will be set. For example, in Magnitogorsk, apartment residents pay 87.5 rubles per person for the service of waste removal, sorting and further transportation. In Chelyabinsk, the regional operator will start working on January 1, 2019.

Sorting stations will be built in Satka, Karabash, Snezhinsk and Trekhgorny. The trash will be sorted there. Some will go to enterprises to be processed, some will be buried in new landfills, taking into account modern environmental requirements. This system will be fully launched in 2020.

By the way, the containers for separate garbage collection will be installed by the same regoperator. Those who violate the rules and use the containers for other purposes will be fined.

Separate garbage collection

According to the Comprehensive Strategy for the Management of MSW in the Russian Federation, by 2020, infrastructure for the separate collection of waste should be created in all constituent entities of Russia. It is understood as intermunicipal facilities (polygons) that provide activities in this area. They either need to be built or the existing ones need to be upgraded.

Separate garbage collection: is it necessary or not?

The question of why separate the garbage is no longer worth it. Only in Moscow annually 11.7 million tons of waste are generated, in the world - 2.5 billion tons. The existing landfills are overcrowded, the construction of new ones is required or the introduction of deep sorting and processing of MSW.

In Europe, the separation of waste into types is carried out immediately at the household level. There are containers for sorted waste in the yards. Then the garbage is taken out separately and delivered to processing plant. The benefits of this approach are obvious: in Sweden, for example, almost 100% waste recycling has been achieved.

Why it is important to sort garbage, every young European sees on the example of his parents - less waste, a more favorable environment.

The problems of separate waste collection in Russia lie in the fact that the culture of sorting waste on the household level. A ban is gradually introduced on the disposal of unsorted waste, as well as scrap metal, paper, plastic and glass containers, tires, batteries, etc. But this provision applies to organizations that work with waste. And we need an integrated approach that involves the introduction of RSO at the household level.

Therefore, the principle of separate collection introduced in Europe has certain advantages:

• Why all this is needed is explained from childhood - an environmentally conscious generation is growing up;
• The main goal of the event is achieved - maximum rate MSW processing;
• Natural resources are conserved;
• No need to purchase certain types raw materials, because they are made from waste.

Therefore, when the pros and cons of separate collection are on the scales, they outweigh the positives.

How to separate garbage

The separate waste collection system does not work everywhere, but there are certain rules that should be followed when sorting at home.

So where to start. To begin with, you can divide the dry household waste and solid food waste. The first category is polyethylene (bags and bottles separately), waste paper, glass containers, batteries. All this is sent for recycling - through recycling points. Approximately once a month, you can take such waste to the appropriate organizations.

Correctly! Clean the packaging and container, rinse and dry if necessary. It is better to collect bottle caps separately - this is a different category of plastic, and it will be more convenient to press plastic containers.

By following these recommendations, everyone will contribute to the preservation natural resources and even be able to earn a certain amount. The order is this: you are raw materials, you are money. This is how, for example, the organization " secondary resource". It accepts waste for processing on its territory, travels to addresses if there is a minimum amount of sorted waste.

Organization of separate waste collection

How to organize a separate collection at home, we have already written. The situation is more complicated with the establishment of the RSO process on the scale of a multi-apartment residential complex. In order to stimulate residents and management companies, the government provided for reduced rates of payment for the removal of solid waste when sorting and separate accumulation of solid waste (Government Decree No. 354 of May 6, 2011). This clause should be reflected in the agreement with the regional operator.

Requirement to segregate waste legal entities is absent. This fact is also emphasized in the Strategy for the development of industry for the processing, recycling and disposal of production and consumption waste for the period up to 2030. In particular, the lack of an efficient RSO system is cited as one of the reasons for Russia's lagging behind in the implementation of waste treatment processes. How to share in the enterprise? The method of collecting production waste in separate containers.

So, in February 2018, the decision of the Eurasian Economic Commission approved uniform veterinary requirements. At facilities subject to veterinary supervision, it is obligatory to equip sites for the separate collection of food waste and other garbage. Similar requirements apply to river vessels: dry household waste and solid food waste must be collected separately.

Promotion of separate waste collection

Almost every subject of the Russian Federation has adopted a program for environmental education population, but very often the financing of its activities is carried out on a residual basis. As a result, methods of stimulating the population are reduced to influencing the self-consciousness of citizens, to work with the younger generation.

Information is disseminated through green companies, social media, portals government agencies in the field of protection environment, mass media. Questions and suggestions are accepted by phone hotline, including through socially-oriented organizations.

At the end of January, Greenpeace presented a rating of the most convenient cities in Russia for separate waste collection (RSO). As follows from the study of the organization, out of 73.7 million residents of large cities, only 14.5% have access to the relevant infrastructure, i.e. 10.7 million people.

By the way, Mytishchi near Moscow became the leader of this rating - 93% of the population have round-the-clock access to separate collection. In general, in the Moscow region, only lazy people do not talk about separate waste collection now. Weekly on environmental actions hundreds of people come out in different parts of the region, the authorities report on the full implementation of the RSO in the cities of the region, and entire manuals appear on the Internet that tell you how to sort your waste. Such consciousness of both the authorities and citizens, who suddenly, in unison, began to engage in a common cause, cannot but rejoice. FBA "Economy Today" decided to find out what is separate waste collection and why it is so important today.

Why separate garbage in the West

Garbage is collected separately so that it can be recycled. In the West, garbage is collected in different bins to make it easier to send it for recycling at sorting stations. For example, organic waste, which are about 35% of the standard wastebasket are used to make fertilizers and biofuels. Generally, in the usual way No more than 70% of municipal solid waste (MSW) can be recycled, the main thing is to separate them correctly. It is much easier to make new glass from used glass than to make it from scratch. From batteries, which should never be thrown into the trash, you can make fertilizer for corn (and if you just throw the battery into the trash can, it will pollute up to 400 liters of water or 20 square meters of land).

A lot of new plastic things can be made from recycled plastic, and the returned paper will go to new notebooks and books.

I started sorting my trash. What's next?

So far, almost nothing. In Russia, there is practically no infrastructure that will allow for the full processing of waste. The fact is that there are very few enterprises that can process waste now. And the number of bins and bins for separate waste collection is not enough. At best, you will find a separate collection tank plastic bottles. And then, if you are a resident of the capital or one of largest cities countries.

Is it all in vain?

No. The introduction of mandatory separate waste collection is not far off. Firstly, in the next few years, modern waste incineration plants (WIP) will appear in the Moscow Region with related infrastructure - sorting and reloading stations, special containers for collecting waste, and much more. For the full functioning of such incinerators, separate waste collection is necessary. The plants themselves, in turn, are needed in order to reduce the burden on existing landfills which are rapidly depleting their resources.

As mentioned above, 30% of waste cannot be recycled in the usual way, but it can be recycled into energy. This is exactly what modern waste incinerators can do. And it is more correct to call them plants for the thermal processing of waste into energy.

In addition, separate waste collection will create conditions for the development of small businesses, as is the case in the West. For properly sorted waste, recycling companies are willing to pay good money. However, the final beneficiaries will be the people themselves: the more enterprises will be engaged in processing, the cheaper the products will be in the end.

And what to do next?

Then it remains to prepare, understand the separate collection, teach your children and help the neighbors. Waste incineration plants in the Moscow region will be built under the control of Rostec's subsidiary RT-Invest in three to four years, and separate collection in the region will most likely be introduced earlier, so that people get used to it and the new "garbage order" does not come as a shock to them . According to the plans of the authorities, within ten years the experience of the Moscow region should be adopted by the whole country, when the separate collection of waste will become commonplace from Kaliningrad to the Kuril ridge.

By the way, in addition to separate waste collection, you can also think about the so-called "reasonable consumption". For example, you can start saving water, stop using cardboard cups in coffee shops, and use your thermos and turn off the lights in the rooms if you are not sitting there. Thus, you can not only help nature, but also save a lot of money.