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A Glance at the World
Waste Management 32 (2012) 1279–1282
Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect
Waste Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/wasman
A Glance at the World Edited by Maria Cristina Lavagnolo This column comprises notes and info not subjected to peer-review focusing on waste management issues in different corners of the world. Its aim is to open a window onto the solid waste management situation in any given country, major city or significant geographic area that may be of interest to the scientific and technical community.
Urban solid waste and its disposal: An emerging challenge in Sangamner city, district Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, India Sangamner is one of the developing and densely populated towns in the Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra State (MS) in India. The city covers an area of about 16.32 sq. km. with a population of 61,958 as per 2001 census. The city is generating 30 tons of solid waste per day which increases up to 35 tons during festivals and celebrations. Out of this total waste, 20% waste remains uncollected. A study has been carried out on the quality of waste. The sample of solid waste was collected from the dustbins as well as dumping sites of the city. The study was carried out by segregating samples into various components of organic and inorganic content (Thitame et al., 2010). The analysis of organic content was carried out to study the following characteristics: pH, Electrical Conductivity (EC), Organic Matter (OM), moisture content, Calcium (Ca),
Magnesium (Mg), Chloride (Cl), Nitrate (NO3 ), Phosphate (PO4 ), Sulfate (SO4 ), Potassium (K), Sodium (Na) as per the methods used by Tandon (2005) and Gupta (2004). The current management practices for collection, treatment and disposal were studied by monitoring the wards and disposal sites of the city. Management tools based on the current assessment are suggested by considering the characteristics and composition of the solid waste generated in Sangamner city. Results reveal that the organic material is the major contributor of the solid waste which accounts for 61% of the total waste generated in the city. However, inorganic waste is only 39%. This may be due to the quantity and content of waste which varies from place to place and depends on topography, season, lifestyles, economic status of the city. It has been observed that the pH of organic solid waste is 7.45 indicating its alkaline nature, although moisture content is 32%. The moisture content up to 25% is essential for waste biodegradation. Organic carbon makes up 31% which might be contributed by
Table 1 Characteristics and composition of solid waste based on 2 kg sample. No.
Composition Content
I 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 II 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Organic Leaves Market waste Wooden matter Paper Kitchen waste Slaughter house waste Cloths and gunny bags Other Total Inorganic Stones, sand, bricks Plastic Metal Bones Rubber and leather Glass Other Total
Characteristics Weight (g/kg)
Percentage (%)
Parameter
Value
99.5 105 95 61 100 22.5 25 102
9.9 10.5 9.5 6.1 10 2.02 2.5 10.2 61%
125 60 50 10 25 20 55
12.5 6 5 1 2.5 2 5.50 39%
pH EC (lm hos/cm 1) Moisture (%) OM (%) Ca (ppm) Mg (ppm) Cl (ppm) Nitrate (ppm) Phosphate (ppm) Sulfate (ppm) Potassium (ppm) Sodium (ppm)
7.45 6153 32 31 434 165 634 74 34 175 163 745
Total I + II
0956-053X/$ - see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.wasman.2012.02.016
100%
1280
A Glance at the World / Waste Management 32 (2012) 1279–1282
ash and other carbon-containing materials. The concentration of Ca, Mg, Cl and Na is 434 mg/l, 165 mg/l, 634 mg/l and 745 mg/l, respectively. Similarly, Nitrate, Phosphate, Sulfate and Potassium are 74 mg/l, 34 mg/l, 175 mg/l and 163 mg/l, respectively in the solid waste. From this it is clear that the organic content of solid waste seems to be good for biodegradation or decomposition as it contains the required levels of moisture and nutrients (see Table 1). Considering these data the application of a good programme based on source segregation and composting of organics could lead to the effective management of 90% solid waste, some with the potential of being transformed into manure and fertilizers, and other raw materials such as plastic, metal, glass and rubber destined for industrial processes. Thus, only 10% waste should be disposed of at landfill sites, thereby reducing the problems associated with urban waste in Sangamner city.
References
Time to act upon illegal landfills in St. Petersburg, Russia
There have been some scattered attempts to apply European sustainable MSW concepts aimed at better source separation and collection, such as the 2005 pilot project (Life) in St. Petersburg and another bilateral Danish pilot project in 2004, in the Leningrad Region. They were unsuccessful because financial, cultural and other systems were not sufficiently developed to support such concepts. The aim of this project was to explore areas for improvement in MSW management in order to raise awareness about these important issues among governmental and multilateral actors, waste management engineers, consultants and others interested in investing in a MSW management infrastructure in North-West Russia. We made observations of the MSW management system in this area by using the performance-related criteria of the Integrated Urban Waste Management Model (IUWMM) (Vigo et al., 2007). We used these criteria to describe the environmental, political/legal, institutional, socio-cultural, financial-economic and technical aspects of the system (Table 1). Data for IUWMM analyses were extracted from monographs, and pivotal research studies were carried out on waste management in the region, exploiting official information from the websites of governing bodies and official statistical data from the Russian Federal State Statistics Service
St. Petersburg was established by Czar Peter the Great in the early 18th century and, after Moscow, it is the second largest city in Russia. It is situated in North-West Russia and the joint population of St. Petersburg and the surrounding Leningrad Region (or Leningrad Oblast) is approximately 6.5 million people (4.8 million in the city and 1.7 million in the region). A total of approximately 3.5 million tonnes of municipal solid waste (MSW) and industrial waste are produced annually by the city and the surrounding region. Waste streams are steadily increasing due to economic growth (see Fig. 1) and at present there are only two obsolete treatment plants, both of which are poorly suited for current waste composition. Significant legal and financial obstacles hamper the development of collection and treatment systems. A lack of federal and local control, as well as the desire to save money, mean that MSW is disposed of in illegal landfills; this in turn causes environmental and public health concerns. No plans and strategies have been implemented to deal with the problem because of a lack of political will and the low status of MSW management.
Gupta, P.K., 2004. Soil, plant, water and fertilizer analysis. Agro bios, Jodhpur (India)., ISBN No.- 81-7754-038-6. Tandon HLS, 2005. Methods of analysis of soils, plants, waters, fertilizers and organic manures. 2nd edition, Fertilizer development and consultation organization, New Delhi, India. Thitame, S.N., Pondhe, G.M., Meshram, D.C., 2010. Characterization and composition of municipal solid waste generated at Sangamner city, Ahmednagar district, Maharashtra, India. Journal of Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 170, 1–5.
Sunil Namdeo Thitame Rural Medical College, Pravara Institute of Medical Sciences (DU), Tal-Rahata, Ahmednagar, India G.M. Pondhe Department of Environmental Science, P.V.P. College, Tal-Rahata, Ahmednagar (MS), India
Fig. 1. Amount of MSW (household and industry) collected in St. Petersburg.
A Glance at the World / Waste Management 32 (2012) 1279–1282
1281
Table 1 Results of the performance criteria IUWMM (Integrated Urban Waste Management Model) used to analyse the collected data. Area of interest
Subject
Institutional
Efficiency of the division of responsibilities and tasks Quality level of staff for waste management
Overall weakness because of lack of resources and history Problems in the division of responsibilities are evident Improved information systems needed Improvement of competence needed
Political legal
Are laws and regulations sufficient? How well does the enforcement of regulations work? Is there a strategy or plan of waste management? What are the main obstacles for attaining the objectives in the strategy/ plan?
Contradictions need to be removed Should international laws approved by Russia not contradict Russian waste laws? Improvement in monitoring the laws is needed There are plans and strategies, but they are poorly implemented Weak political motivation in implementing waste issues Unrealistic strategies and goals?
Level of co-operation between different stakeholders Possible influence by clients on the fee structure and service levels Effectiveness of fees for illegal actions and incentives for positive actions
Correspondence between waste taxes level and service quality level Investment and operational cost of waste management Level of cost sharing among the various stakeholders Level of recovery
How well is waste management functioning? What system elements are currently included in municipal waste management? How well are waste management systems adapted to the local physical conditions and topography? Is waste management working with or against any other urban systems? Collection rate Collection coverage Number of litter bins Performance of waste processing plant
Disposal rate in sanitary landfills Hazardous waste collection Recovery rate Health status of the population
Socio-cultural
Financial
Technical
Environmental
Results of the analysis
(Rosstat). The compilation and analysis of the data were enhanced by an exchange program between the participating Finnish and Russian academic institutions (three visiting Russian researchers spent six months in Finland), and discussion sessions during project seminars were organized. Legal, institutional and political aspects Russian legislation is based on a federal hierarchy in which inferior legal acts must not contradict superior ones. The sequence of Russian legal documents is as follows: the Constitution of the Russian Federation, federal laws, and decrees by the President of Russia, orders of the Russian Government, legal acts of the federal ministries and agencies, and technical and methodological documents. Waste management in Russia is regulated by The Law on the Sanitary Epidemiological Well Being of People and urban planning and civil laws. Federal Law 89-F3 ‘‘On Production and Consumption of Waste’’, dated 24 June 1998, has the status of being a specific law in the area of waste management. This established the legal definitions and the legal basis for the management of waste from production to consumption and is aimed at preventing adverse health and environmental effects. According to the hierarchy principle, other legal acts of the federal, regional and municipal authorities in the area of waste management must correspond to this law. In St. Petersburg the Committee for Landscaping is the state executive organ for MSW and industrial waste. The Waste Management Department (WMD), founded in 2009 as part of the city
Insufficient co-operation, because of lack of trust in general in society Clients have opportunities to negatively influence actions Ineffective incentives and insufficient penalties NGOs’ controversial impact Relationship between the taxes collected and service quality is unclear Cost of waste management? Cost sharing? Incomplete recovery Waste management has serious problems Landfills in St. Petersburg are almost full Disposal to the Leningrad Region Not enough bins Old waste plants which are unsuitable for the changed situation (new type of waste) Collection does not work well all the time (frequency)? Bins are in bad condition Stolen bins Collection coverage? No money at local levels to close illegal landfills or establish new ones No legal requirements to separate hazardous waste, no separation Incineration of waste at source
administration (later), merged with the Committee for Landscaping. The department’s status has not yet been confirmed and the Committee is currently under administrative arrangement. Other Waste management authorities in St. Petersburg include the Housing and Tariff Committees and the Committee for the Use of Natural Resources, Environment Protection, and Environmental Safety. The MSW governing bodies in the Leningrad Region are as follows: the Committee for Natural Resources, the Committee for Use of Natural Resources, Environment Protection, and Environmental Safety and the Committee for Energy and Housing. The JSC Management Company for Waste Treatment was founded in the Leningrad Region in 2008, and it is wholly owned by the Leningrad Region. The current Russian three-tier local governing structure (region or city, district, municipal unit) is based on the municipal reform of 2006. The attempt to transfer power to the local level has not been successful. The collapse of the centralised administrative system has led to unstable institutions and governance and a poor legal framework and a laissez faire economic order (Salmi, 2008). In the last few years, the direction of change has moved back to central steering, and waste management is no exception. According to the Housing Code of the Russian Federation, the flat owners themselves should directly organise the collection and transportation of waste from blocks of flats through free owner organisations (owners’ partnership housing) or through special management companies.
1282
A Glance at the World / Waste Management 32 (2012) 1279–1282
The role of the district (‘‘Raion’’) in waste management mainly involves waste collection, and the larger administrative units, the regional committees, generally make the decisions regarding waste treatment and waste tariffs. The smallest administrative units, the municipalities, are responsible for collecting the MSW payments from private houses and, in theory, for shutting down such operations as illegal landfills, but at the moment they do not have the funds to do so. At the district level, the Office of Public Prosecutors acts as a public watchdog, but its resources and means for monitoring waste management remain limited. The responsibilities of federal monitoring organs, such as Rostechnadzor (technical), Rosprirodnadzor (environmental) and Rospotrebnadzor (sanitary) organizations, overlap with one another and resources at the grassroots level, at the level of the municipalities, are insufficient. Passivity, distrust and a low level of public interest in waste management issues were evident in the studied documents and newspaper articles. An unclear and non-transparent tariff policy and weak governance reduce the motivation of ordinary people and private service providers to take an interest in waste management. This contributes to bad practices, such as the illegal disposal of waste in dumpsites throughout the semi-rural Leningrad Region. Financial-economic aspects and waste flows It is hoped that the improved economic situation will lead to the creation of adequate cost-recovery mechanisms for proper waste management. Since 2000, a substantial increase has been observed in revenue collection, which is encouraging, but many problems still remain. From the point of view of the St. Petersburg waste officials, legislative changes are needed to enable higher waste tariffs to cover the costs of new treatment needs and to ensure sustainable development. From the citizen point of view, legal changes are needed to clarify the justification of waste fees. Moreover, there is a need to ensure the universal collection of fees. The amount of generated MSW has been roughly estimated (Venculis et al., 2007). We estimated its growth trends in proportion to the gross regional product growth (Fig. 1). The unreliability of the data and the lack of waste flow registration were recognized before in MSW research and by our study group. The sharp fall in the amount of MSW in 2005 in St. Petersburg is probably artificial and results from changes over time to the measurement rules and illegal dumping. An information system called ‘‘Waste’’ for the Leningrad Region was established in 2008 and for St. Petersburg in the summer of 2010. According to our information the Leningrad Region’s rates for waste disposal are approximately € 4.5 per tonne, while in St. Petersburg the rate is € 7.6 per tonne. The waste treatment plants charge up to € 26.25 per tonne.
Logistics and environmental impacts The collection and transportation of MSW includes the collection of unsorted waste from households and from over 1700 separate waste collection sites throughout the city (one site for every 2700 people). After the MSW is transported to collection stations, where the waste is separated manually (after the extraction of
saleable parts), it is transported to landfills (70%) or to two existing treatment plants (30%). The state organizes approximately 80% of the transportation, and the rest is organized by small private companies. There are 11 landfill sites, 60 official dump sites and over 150 other places in the Leningrad Region that are constantly used for dumping waste, and several hundred illegal dump sites, which pose a threat to public safety in St. Petersburg and especially in the Leningrad Region. Uncontrolled dumping is of special concern throughout the area as hazardous waste, for example medicines, batteries, electronics and luminescent lamps found in household waste are not separated from the MSW stream. Final remarks A great deal more money needs to be invested in MSW management in this area, the second largest metropolitan area in Russia. Laissez-faire attitudes among policy makers and the prevailing general mentality have prevented necessary improvements in MSW management, while economic growth has significantly aggravated health and environmental hazards resulting from rampant and improper MSW management in St. Petersburg and the surrounding Leningrad Region. It is time to better manage illegal landfills. Acknowledgements The research has been supported by the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs. The article is based on the results of the first task of the WasteNet project, which complements the Southeast Finland-Russia ENPI CBC (ENPI CBC, European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument Cross Border Cooperation) Programme 2007–2013.
References Salmi, O., 2008. Science, Sulphur and Sustainability: Environmental Strategies on Mining in the Russian Kola Peninsula. Ph.D. Thesis, Helsinki University of Technology, 68p, Espoo. Venculis, L., Skorick, Y., Florinskaya, T., 2007. Beyw⁄kbc K.C., Cropbr >.B., Ukopbycraz T.M. 2007. CbcTeva o,paoeybz c oTXolavb: gpbywbgmI opuaybpawbb b oweyo[ymIe rpbTepbb. [Waste management system: principles of organization and evaluation criteria]. Cg,: gbza PAH, 207p, St. Petersburg. Vigo, D., Bonoli, A., Gricinella, A., Zarri, G., 2007. Key elements for optimal integrated USW-Management – International experiences. Interreg IIIC. Component 2 Handbook. DEIS-University of Bologna, Italy.
Tuija Paunio Aalto University, Lahti Center, Finland Yury V. Ryabov Saint Petersburg Scientific Research Center for Ecological Safety RAS of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia Aalto University, Lahti Center, Finland M. Malyshkin St. Petersburg State Mining Institute, Russia Aalto University, Lahti Center, Finland Juha Kaila Aalto University, Lahti Center, Finland
Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect
Waste Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/wasman
A Glance at the World Edited by Maria Cristina Lavagnolo This column comprises notes and info not subjected to peer-review focusing on waste management issues in different corners of the world. Its aim is to open a window onto the solid waste management situation in any given country, major city or significant geographic area that may be of interest to the scientific and technical community.
Urban solid waste and its disposal: An emerging challenge in Sangamner city, district Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, India Sangamner is one of the developing and densely populated towns in the Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra State (MS) in India. The city covers an area of about 16.32 sq. km. with a population of 61,958 as per 2001 census. The city is generating 30 tons of solid waste per day which increases up to 35 tons during festivals and celebrations. Out of this total waste, 20% waste remains uncollected. A study has been carried out on the quality of waste. The sample of solid waste was collected from the dustbins as well as dumping sites of the city. The study was carried out by segregating samples into various components of organic and inorganic content (Thitame et al., 2010). The analysis of organic content was carried out to study the following characteristics: pH, Electrical Conductivity (EC), Organic Matter (OM), moisture content, Calcium (Ca),
Magnesium (Mg), Chloride (Cl), Nitrate (NO3 ), Phosphate (PO4 ), Sulfate (SO4 ), Potassium (K), Sodium (Na) as per the methods used by Tandon (2005) and Gupta (2004). The current management practices for collection, treatment and disposal were studied by monitoring the wards and disposal sites of the city. Management tools based on the current assessment are suggested by considering the characteristics and composition of the solid waste generated in Sangamner city. Results reveal that the organic material is the major contributor of the solid waste which accounts for 61% of the total waste generated in the city. However, inorganic waste is only 39%. This may be due to the quantity and content of waste which varies from place to place and depends on topography, season, lifestyles, economic status of the city. It has been observed that the pH of organic solid waste is 7.45 indicating its alkaline nature, although moisture content is 32%. The moisture content up to 25% is essential for waste biodegradation. Organic carbon makes up 31% which might be contributed by
Table 1 Characteristics and composition of solid waste based on 2 kg sample. No.
Composition Content
I 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 II 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Organic Leaves Market waste Wooden matter Paper Kitchen waste Slaughter house waste Cloths and gunny bags Other Total Inorganic Stones, sand, bricks Plastic Metal Bones Rubber and leather Glass Other Total
Characteristics Weight (g/kg)
Percentage (%)
Parameter
Value
99.5 105 95 61 100 22.5 25 102
9.9 10.5 9.5 6.1 10 2.02 2.5 10.2 61%
125 60 50 10 25 20 55
12.5 6 5 1 2.5 2 5.50 39%
pH EC (lm hos/cm 1) Moisture (%) OM (%) Ca (ppm) Mg (ppm) Cl (ppm) Nitrate (ppm) Phosphate (ppm) Sulfate (ppm) Potassium (ppm) Sodium (ppm)
7.45 6153 32 31 434 165 634 74 34 175 163 745
Total I + II
0956-053X/$ - see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.wasman.2012.02.016
100%
1280
A Glance at the World / Waste Management 32 (2012) 1279–1282
ash and other carbon-containing materials. The concentration of Ca, Mg, Cl and Na is 434 mg/l, 165 mg/l, 634 mg/l and 745 mg/l, respectively. Similarly, Nitrate, Phosphate, Sulfate and Potassium are 74 mg/l, 34 mg/l, 175 mg/l and 163 mg/l, respectively in the solid waste. From this it is clear that the organic content of solid waste seems to be good for biodegradation or decomposition as it contains the required levels of moisture and nutrients (see Table 1). Considering these data the application of a good programme based on source segregation and composting of organics could lead to the effective management of 90% solid waste, some with the potential of being transformed into manure and fertilizers, and other raw materials such as plastic, metal, glass and rubber destined for industrial processes. Thus, only 10% waste should be disposed of at landfill sites, thereby reducing the problems associated with urban waste in Sangamner city.
References
Time to act upon illegal landfills in St. Petersburg, Russia
There have been some scattered attempts to apply European sustainable MSW concepts aimed at better source separation and collection, such as the 2005 pilot project (Life) in St. Petersburg and another bilateral Danish pilot project in 2004, in the Leningrad Region. They were unsuccessful because financial, cultural and other systems were not sufficiently developed to support such concepts. The aim of this project was to explore areas for improvement in MSW management in order to raise awareness about these important issues among governmental and multilateral actors, waste management engineers, consultants and others interested in investing in a MSW management infrastructure in North-West Russia. We made observations of the MSW management system in this area by using the performance-related criteria of the Integrated Urban Waste Management Model (IUWMM) (Vigo et al., 2007). We used these criteria to describe the environmental, political/legal, institutional, socio-cultural, financial-economic and technical aspects of the system (Table 1). Data for IUWMM analyses were extracted from monographs, and pivotal research studies were carried out on waste management in the region, exploiting official information from the websites of governing bodies and official statistical data from the Russian Federal State Statistics Service
St. Petersburg was established by Czar Peter the Great in the early 18th century and, after Moscow, it is the second largest city in Russia. It is situated in North-West Russia and the joint population of St. Petersburg and the surrounding Leningrad Region (or Leningrad Oblast) is approximately 6.5 million people (4.8 million in the city and 1.7 million in the region). A total of approximately 3.5 million tonnes of municipal solid waste (MSW) and industrial waste are produced annually by the city and the surrounding region. Waste streams are steadily increasing due to economic growth (see Fig. 1) and at present there are only two obsolete treatment plants, both of which are poorly suited for current waste composition. Significant legal and financial obstacles hamper the development of collection and treatment systems. A lack of federal and local control, as well as the desire to save money, mean that MSW is disposed of in illegal landfills; this in turn causes environmental and public health concerns. No plans and strategies have been implemented to deal with the problem because of a lack of political will and the low status of MSW management.
Gupta, P.K., 2004. Soil, plant, water and fertilizer analysis. Agro bios, Jodhpur (India)., ISBN No.- 81-7754-038-6. Tandon HLS, 2005. Methods of analysis of soils, plants, waters, fertilizers and organic manures. 2nd edition, Fertilizer development and consultation organization, New Delhi, India. Thitame, S.N., Pondhe, G.M., Meshram, D.C., 2010. Characterization and composition of municipal solid waste generated at Sangamner city, Ahmednagar district, Maharashtra, India. Journal of Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 170, 1–5.
Sunil Namdeo Thitame Rural Medical College, Pravara Institute of Medical Sciences (DU), Tal-Rahata, Ahmednagar, India G.M. Pondhe Department of Environmental Science, P.V.P. College, Tal-Rahata, Ahmednagar (MS), India
Fig. 1. Amount of MSW (household and industry) collected in St. Petersburg.
A Glance at the World / Waste Management 32 (2012) 1279–1282
1281
Table 1 Results of the performance criteria IUWMM (Integrated Urban Waste Management Model) used to analyse the collected data. Area of interest
Subject
Institutional
Efficiency of the division of responsibilities and tasks Quality level of staff for waste management
Overall weakness because of lack of resources and history Problems in the division of responsibilities are evident Improved information systems needed Improvement of competence needed
Political legal
Are laws and regulations sufficient? How well does the enforcement of regulations work? Is there a strategy or plan of waste management? What are the main obstacles for attaining the objectives in the strategy/ plan?
Contradictions need to be removed Should international laws approved by Russia not contradict Russian waste laws? Improvement in monitoring the laws is needed There are plans and strategies, but they are poorly implemented Weak political motivation in implementing waste issues Unrealistic strategies and goals?
Level of co-operation between different stakeholders Possible influence by clients on the fee structure and service levels Effectiveness of fees for illegal actions and incentives for positive actions
Correspondence between waste taxes level and service quality level Investment and operational cost of waste management Level of cost sharing among the various stakeholders Level of recovery
How well is waste management functioning? What system elements are currently included in municipal waste management? How well are waste management systems adapted to the local physical conditions and topography? Is waste management working with or against any other urban systems? Collection rate Collection coverage Number of litter bins Performance of waste processing plant
Disposal rate in sanitary landfills Hazardous waste collection Recovery rate Health status of the population
Socio-cultural
Financial
Technical
Environmental
Results of the analysis
(Rosstat). The compilation and analysis of the data were enhanced by an exchange program between the participating Finnish and Russian academic institutions (three visiting Russian researchers spent six months in Finland), and discussion sessions during project seminars were organized. Legal, institutional and political aspects Russian legislation is based on a federal hierarchy in which inferior legal acts must not contradict superior ones. The sequence of Russian legal documents is as follows: the Constitution of the Russian Federation, federal laws, and decrees by the President of Russia, orders of the Russian Government, legal acts of the federal ministries and agencies, and technical and methodological documents. Waste management in Russia is regulated by The Law on the Sanitary Epidemiological Well Being of People and urban planning and civil laws. Federal Law 89-F3 ‘‘On Production and Consumption of Waste’’, dated 24 June 1998, has the status of being a specific law in the area of waste management. This established the legal definitions and the legal basis for the management of waste from production to consumption and is aimed at preventing adverse health and environmental effects. According to the hierarchy principle, other legal acts of the federal, regional and municipal authorities in the area of waste management must correspond to this law. In St. Petersburg the Committee for Landscaping is the state executive organ for MSW and industrial waste. The Waste Management Department (WMD), founded in 2009 as part of the city
Insufficient co-operation, because of lack of trust in general in society Clients have opportunities to negatively influence actions Ineffective incentives and insufficient penalties NGOs’ controversial impact Relationship between the taxes collected and service quality is unclear Cost of waste management? Cost sharing? Incomplete recovery Waste management has serious problems Landfills in St. Petersburg are almost full Disposal to the Leningrad Region Not enough bins Old waste plants which are unsuitable for the changed situation (new type of waste) Collection does not work well all the time (frequency)? Bins are in bad condition Stolen bins Collection coverage? No money at local levels to close illegal landfills or establish new ones No legal requirements to separate hazardous waste, no separation Incineration of waste at source
administration (later), merged with the Committee for Landscaping. The department’s status has not yet been confirmed and the Committee is currently under administrative arrangement. Other Waste management authorities in St. Petersburg include the Housing and Tariff Committees and the Committee for the Use of Natural Resources, Environment Protection, and Environmental Safety. The MSW governing bodies in the Leningrad Region are as follows: the Committee for Natural Resources, the Committee for Use of Natural Resources, Environment Protection, and Environmental Safety and the Committee for Energy and Housing. The JSC Management Company for Waste Treatment was founded in the Leningrad Region in 2008, and it is wholly owned by the Leningrad Region. The current Russian three-tier local governing structure (region or city, district, municipal unit) is based on the municipal reform of 2006. The attempt to transfer power to the local level has not been successful. The collapse of the centralised administrative system has led to unstable institutions and governance and a poor legal framework and a laissez faire economic order (Salmi, 2008). In the last few years, the direction of change has moved back to central steering, and waste management is no exception. According to the Housing Code of the Russian Federation, the flat owners themselves should directly organise the collection and transportation of waste from blocks of flats through free owner organisations (owners’ partnership housing) or through special management companies.
1282
A Glance at the World / Waste Management 32 (2012) 1279–1282
The role of the district (‘‘Raion’’) in waste management mainly involves waste collection, and the larger administrative units, the regional committees, generally make the decisions regarding waste treatment and waste tariffs. The smallest administrative units, the municipalities, are responsible for collecting the MSW payments from private houses and, in theory, for shutting down such operations as illegal landfills, but at the moment they do not have the funds to do so. At the district level, the Office of Public Prosecutors acts as a public watchdog, but its resources and means for monitoring waste management remain limited. The responsibilities of federal monitoring organs, such as Rostechnadzor (technical), Rosprirodnadzor (environmental) and Rospotrebnadzor (sanitary) organizations, overlap with one another and resources at the grassroots level, at the level of the municipalities, are insufficient. Passivity, distrust and a low level of public interest in waste management issues were evident in the studied documents and newspaper articles. An unclear and non-transparent tariff policy and weak governance reduce the motivation of ordinary people and private service providers to take an interest in waste management. This contributes to bad practices, such as the illegal disposal of waste in dumpsites throughout the semi-rural Leningrad Region. Financial-economic aspects and waste flows It is hoped that the improved economic situation will lead to the creation of adequate cost-recovery mechanisms for proper waste management. Since 2000, a substantial increase has been observed in revenue collection, which is encouraging, but many problems still remain. From the point of view of the St. Petersburg waste officials, legislative changes are needed to enable higher waste tariffs to cover the costs of new treatment needs and to ensure sustainable development. From the citizen point of view, legal changes are needed to clarify the justification of waste fees. Moreover, there is a need to ensure the universal collection of fees. The amount of generated MSW has been roughly estimated (Venculis et al., 2007). We estimated its growth trends in proportion to the gross regional product growth (Fig. 1). The unreliability of the data and the lack of waste flow registration were recognized before in MSW research and by our study group. The sharp fall in the amount of MSW in 2005 in St. Petersburg is probably artificial and results from changes over time to the measurement rules and illegal dumping. An information system called ‘‘Waste’’ for the Leningrad Region was established in 2008 and for St. Petersburg in the summer of 2010. According to our information the Leningrad Region’s rates for waste disposal are approximately € 4.5 per tonne, while in St. Petersburg the rate is € 7.6 per tonne. The waste treatment plants charge up to € 26.25 per tonne.
Logistics and environmental impacts The collection and transportation of MSW includes the collection of unsorted waste from households and from over 1700 separate waste collection sites throughout the city (one site for every 2700 people). After the MSW is transported to collection stations, where the waste is separated manually (after the extraction of
saleable parts), it is transported to landfills (70%) or to two existing treatment plants (30%). The state organizes approximately 80% of the transportation, and the rest is organized by small private companies. There are 11 landfill sites, 60 official dump sites and over 150 other places in the Leningrad Region that are constantly used for dumping waste, and several hundred illegal dump sites, which pose a threat to public safety in St. Petersburg and especially in the Leningrad Region. Uncontrolled dumping is of special concern throughout the area as hazardous waste, for example medicines, batteries, electronics and luminescent lamps found in household waste are not separated from the MSW stream. Final remarks A great deal more money needs to be invested in MSW management in this area, the second largest metropolitan area in Russia. Laissez-faire attitudes among policy makers and the prevailing general mentality have prevented necessary improvements in MSW management, while economic growth has significantly aggravated health and environmental hazards resulting from rampant and improper MSW management in St. Petersburg and the surrounding Leningrad Region. It is time to better manage illegal landfills. Acknowledgements The research has been supported by the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs. The article is based on the results of the first task of the WasteNet project, which complements the Southeast Finland-Russia ENPI CBC (ENPI CBC, European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument Cross Border Cooperation) Programme 2007–2013.
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Tuija Paunio Aalto University, Lahti Center, Finland Yury V. Ryabov Saint Petersburg Scientific Research Center for Ecological Safety RAS of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia Aalto University, Lahti Center, Finland M. Malyshkin St. Petersburg State Mining Institute, Russia Aalto University, Lahti Center, Finland Juha Kaila Aalto University, Lahti Center, Finland