May 3, Kyiv: The press conference on "Solid waste. Landfills in Ukraine. Does a waste disaster threaten Ukraine?" was held today in the media-hall of the information agency Ukrainian National News. Olexandr Ignatenko, Director of Land Improvements, Housing and Municipal Services Department of the Ministry of Regional Development and Construction of Ukraine, Leonid Tulovskiy, Ouality Management Expert of the UNDP project Municipal Governance and Sustainable Development and Vyacheslav Sorokowskyi, expert on decentralisation issues of the Swiss-Ukrainian project Support of Decentralisation in Ukraine took part in the press conference.

Olexandr Ignatenko, Director of land improvements, housing and municipal services Department of the  Ministry of Regional Development and Construction of Ukraine informed that about 50 ml cubic meters of solid waste (it is about 12 ml tons) are produced annually and dumped on the territories of 6 thousand landfills. 92% of all solid waste are dumped while the rest are being processed. The number of cities introducing separate collection of waste is regularly growing. Thus, if in 2012 only 53 cities introduced waste sorting, in 2011 there were already 130 cities and in 2012 – 185. 14 waste sorting stations are functioning in Ukraine. 

Meanwhile centralised Municipal solid waste (MSW) disposition is implemented only in 30% of villages. In order to solve this problem the Ministry discusses with the associations of local bodies of self-governance the possibility to transmit powers to dispose MSW from village councils on District State Administrations. Probably the mechanisms of inter-municipal cooperation would be involved and this is already being tested in Tulchyn District withing the inter-municipal programme on the introduction of integral approach to MSW treatment.

Vyacheslav Sorokovskiy, expert on decentralisation issues of the Swiss-Ukrainian project Support of Decentralisation in Ukraine and  Leonid Tulovskiy, quality control expert of the UNDP Municipal Governance and Sustainable Development Programme reported on the progress of the joint project implementation. Inter-municipal project to introduce integrated approach to MSW treatment is implemented in order to solve problems which exist in the sphere of MSW treatment in Tulchyn District. Tulchyn District State Administration, Tulchyn District Council, Tulchyn City Council, Suvorivska and Kynashivska Village Councils with the support of the Swiss-Ukrainian project Support of Decentralisation in Ukraine and UNDP Municipal Governance and Sustainable Development Programme.

In April 2012 a report on the development of alternative integrated MSW treatment in Tulchyn target region was considered. After a lengthy discussion the Managing Committee approved one of the three suggested options of MSW treatment in the district, which will form the basis for regional Strategy of waste treatment and for the action plan of its implementation.

According to the approved option the 4-containers technological scheme of separate waste collection would be introduced in multi-stored houses, which involves the use of separate containers for separate storage of paper and cardboard, plastic, metal, glass and mixed waste.

UNDP/MGSDP supported pilot initiative to test the system of solid waste separate collection in five multi-apartment houses in Tulchyn where ACMH were organised.

UNDP/MGSDP approved a project for Tulchyn as for procurement of materials and equipment to implement a constituent of the inter-municipal project, namely:

-      Procurement of equipment and storage containers necessary for the phased implementation of the system of separate solid waste collection and disposal on the territory of Tulchyn;

-      Construction of five grounds for the MSW collection near the “pilot” houses and equipping the grounds with the storage containers for the MSW separate collection;

-      Training for ACMH Board members and activists on the implementation of separate MSW collection and determination of economic benefits of this approach;

-      Improving municipal service quality, introduction of free services of transportation of separated fractions meant for recycling, changing behavior patterns of the dwellers of multi-apartment houses in the context of separate MSW collection;

-      Conducting an information campaign in Tulchyn and the neighboring villages;

Similar pilot projects for separate solid waste collection and composting of "green" waste will be implemented in the villages Kynashiv and Suvorovske.

Also, on a pilot territory information campaign "LESS WASTE – BETTER LIFE." is conducted.

More details on the campaign events can be found on the web-page of Tulchyn City Council (http://tulchyn-rada.org.ua/TPV) in the section “Inter-municipal project on introduction of integrated approach to MSW treatment”.

It is expected that implementation of the project will solve the problem of waste in the district, improve environment and suggest a model that might be used in other regions of Ukraine.

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For more information, contact Galyna Smirnova, Monitoring and Communications Officer, tel. (044) 584-34-75 or e-mail: galyna.smirnova at undp.org.ua