Russia Pledges more investment to improve its waste management and recycling

Russia is lagging behind in Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) management but with recent announcements to invest more in this industry Russia offers Huge opportunities to companies who can provide waste management and recycling technology & services. With economic development and a rising middle class with higher disposable incomes comes the headache of managing, disposing and recycling of more waste.

In terms of MSW Russia generates in the region of 100 thousand tonnes per day, the pessimistic projection is that by 2025 this will increase by 20% to 120 thousand tonnes per day but some analysis are expecting this to double by 2025. Currently 96% of Russia waste is sent straight to Landfill with only 4% of waste materials being recycled with only a negligible amount of waste being used to generate energy. To put this into context the EU recovers on average 50% of its waste with Poland and Norway recovering 78% and 74% respectively so Russia needs a lot of investment to catch up. With other countries in the EU such as Germany, France and UK they generate similar levels of Municipal Solid Waste with considerable less population then Russia but non recovered waste in these 3 countries is on the decline where in Russia it’s increasing. If the current trend continues then it's expected that Russia will have highest rates of Waste to Landfill very soon with some analysis stating Russia is already there. The average Russian citizen threw away 330 kilograms of waste in 2010 up from 200 kilograms from 2000 which is an increase of 65%, if Russia continues to grow at this rate then the average person in Russia will generate 500 kilograms of waste by 2025. Russia is currently the 3rd largest emitter of methane gas in the world but the largest emitter if just the levels were measured from Landfill.  Hazardous waste is also a major issue so key improvements and investment is needed to treat harmful and particularly difficult to treat waste.

Russia's major problem is inadequate legislation and lenient enforcement; other problems are a lack of a waste management strategy at a country level, poor infrastructure for MSW collection and processing. Russia also needs to offer incentives to attract business and private investment in Municipal Solid Waste Management sector. Russia will also have to motivate its population into the recycling ethos as good waste management has to start from the bottom up.

The way forward

A short term solution is for Russia to increase its Landfill capacity but this would need to double to meet the protected waste that Russia is expected to generate by 2025 

It’s estimated that Russia will need to invest € 40 billion dollars to create a sustainable waste recovery management system to recover 40% of the waste by 2025 the upside on this is that the recovered waste will generate an additional € 2 billion in revenue. This will reduce landfill rates by 20 to 30%.

A key area where Russia will need to improve is its Garbage trucks and container fleet. It’s expected that Russia will spend € 3.5 billion euros in this area to improve the logistics of moving its waste.

Russia needs to create a waste hierarchy similar to the EU this will enable a clearer priority and sequencing of Municipal Solid Waste management.

Legislation at country levels need to be improved, Russia went someway to address this with the draft legislation to improve this on waste management in 2011.

To help Russia move away from over use of Landfill then a landfill tax should be brought in, similarly to what is practiced across the EU which will help to reduce landfill rates.

Infrastructure for MSW collection and processing needs to be improved as a priority, Private investment (PPP) needs to be encouraged to support this; currently only 30% of waste management is run by private operators.

Russia needs to offer incentives to attract business and private investment in Municipal Solid Waste Management sector.

Measures are needed to be put in place to discourage illegal scrap metal waste capture, which is estimated to be a significant problem in Russia. Regulations and law enforcement are key to reducing this problem.

Raise public awareness to improve the Russians population ethos towards recycling, education has been used to achieve in other EU countries, but government needs to put in place the localised collection points to help support and encourage this. 

Russia will need to invest in waste to incineration facilities to improve this area of its waste management and lower the use of other resources. 

Other Facts and Russia's targets

Russia is targeting 60% to 70% Recycling of MSW and Energy to Waste rates by 2025 for Moscow and Saint Petersburg.

Recycling and Energy to Waste rates of 30 to 40% in other metropolitan areas with + 500 000 population.

10 to 20% Recycling and Energy to Waste rates in low habitation areas such as Siberia, Belgorod, Kostroma etc

Russia over the next 10 years will have to spend similar amounts on it waste management as it has done in other industries such as Transportation and Communications to meet acceptable standards.