The Russian Environmental Operator (REO) has prepared a Concept for minimizing waste generation in the Russian Federation, the goal of which is to reduce the volume of waste disposal and thereby reduce its negative impact on the environment. Izvestia has reviewed the document. It must be approved by the government by the end of the year, after which a road map with a plan for its implementation will appear.
The document focuses mainly on plastic waste, which accounts for up to 50% of all MSW in the Russian Federation; the total volume of such waste is 57 million tons. “At the same time, packaging waste will continue to increase, including due to the development of e-commerce and services delivery,” the document says.
Only a small part of this waste is recycled; most of it goes to landfills. The problem with plastic is already quite large-scale, writes REO. For example, in the Pacific Ocean an island was formed from such garbage; its area, according to expert estimates, ranges from 680 thousand to 1.65 million square meters. km. Therefore, the environmental operator proposes a set of measures that will help gradually solve the problem. For example, REO proposes to stimulate trade and public catering to abandon the use of plastic cards – bonus cards and loyalty cards.
It can be assumed that if one Russian has five plastic discount cards, then 10 million people have 50 million of them, taking into account the fact that the weight of one card measuring 86×54 mm is 5 g, then it turns out to be 250 million kg of plastic on hand, explained “ Izvestia” head of REO Denis Butsayev. In fact, it cannot be recycled: the cards are made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), which is accepted for recycling by very few plastic collection points, he added. Even in theory, they cannot cope with such a volume, so basically these cards go to landfills.
Read more in the exclusive material from Izvestia:
Hand over your bonus: in Russia they propose to abandon plastic loyalty cards
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