Why the Russian waste reform seems doomed to fail in rural areas?

Submitted by KA5013 on
waste reform in Russia

For two years now, the project "WasteLess Karelias" has been working in three Karelian villages - Vedlozero, Naystenjärvi and Tolvuja. We carry out specific activities – building collection points for mixed waste, conducting environmental campaigns and working with schools – to improve the waste situation. We are gradually moving towards the main goal of the project – to make Karelias on the both sides of the Finnish-Russian border cleaner.

Also, we are trying to understand why the ongoing Russian waste reform bypasses the rural areas. We track the changes in legislation and regulations, collect news from the waste management sector, communicate with village administrations, activists and ordinary residents, entrepreneurs and representatives of the regional waste operator.

At the end of 2020, we published a research article, where we offer our own vision of the Russian waste reform challenges, and recently – a short popularised version of the same article. It is available in Russian and English. Four detailed comments (two in Russian, one in English and one in Finnish) have been added to the discussion article, which partially confirm our conclusions, and most importantly, expand the picture of waste issues in Russia.

Anyone is welcome to join the discussion, for example, by writing directly to the authors of the article - representatives of the "WasteLess Karelias" project.