How different countries solve the garbage problem. How different countries solve the problem of landfills

Ecology of life. Planet: Let's try to take a short trip to the largest cities in the world to find out how they deal with garbage in different places on the beautiful planet Earth...

People lived well and carefree in the 13th century: everything unnecessary went out into the street, and then the good old process of rotting began. If you don't like the smell, spray more perfume. If you don’t have money for perfume, be grateful that the earth carries you at all. But this seemingly ideal scheme was significantly spoiled by the plague, wiping out completely half of the population of Europe.

Since then, people have clearly realized: clean is not where they don’t litter, but where the trash is removed. Over time, human waste products have become more complex and toxic, and methods of their disposal have become more sophisticated and elegant.

Let's try to take a short trip to the largest cities in the world to find out how they deal with garbage in different places on the beautiful planet Earth.

EUROPEAN EXPERIENCE

Europe has the most significant, authoritative and comprehensive experience in waste disposal (the plague epidemic apparently had an educational effect). The principle of ancient Roman management “divide and conquer” has acquired a new meaning since the late 80s of the last century - the separation of garbage and the subsequent reaping of quite significant fruits.

No self-respecting European will allow himself to throw garbage into a bag without first separating it into organic/inorganic and plastic/paper.

Why are they doing this? The answer is simple: they take care of the environment and save natural resources. In addition, sorting waste greatly simplifies its recycling, and therefore reduces the cost of the process.

The garbage is additionally sorted on the conveyor to weed out, for example, metal. The remainder is usually burned. Some cities, like Hamburg, heat themselves in this way.

Another advantage: such a program creates many new jobs, which, in the context of global economic cataclysms, is very profitable.

GERMAN PEDANTRY

Germany can easily be called the European champion of waste recycling. They were the first to try this practice back in the early 90s and, with all the pedantry inherent in Germans, are improving the system to this day. Each apartment has at least three waste collection containers. And sometimes it’s eight.

Old batteries and accumulators require special disposal, as they contain highly toxic toxic substances. Old clothes and shoes are collected in special containers that can be found near stores, parking lots or churches. If a German wants to throw away, for example, his outdated refrigerator on an unforeseen day, he needs to call in advance and order a car.

In Germany, the price of a drink usually already includes a deposit for the container, so glass bottles and banks (with special signs) can be returned at any store and get your deposit back (about 10 to 25 euro cents).

In this country on high level Educational work has been carried out with the population, it is carried out by the media, housemasters, and it is enshrined in German laws. The “garbage police” monitor the cleanliness.

Different countries are resorting to in various ways stimulating the population to collect and sort waste. Berlin teenagers who collect trash and recycle it receive financial rewards. Dutch municipal authorities are issuing special environmental loyalty coupons to active program participants separate waste. This coupon gives discounts on payment utilities and housing. In Barcelona, ​​children are rewarded with treats, and adults are rewarded with gratitude from the authorities.

TRASH TELEPORT IN SPAIN

By the way, about Barcelona. Unlike Northern Europe, in Spain, conscious waste management has been instilled not so long ago, so the Spaniards have at least learned to separate yogurt jars into three parts, but you can still find heaps of household items on the streets - from old galoshes to a TV - that have been given away to be freely torn to pieces by the poor.

In some cities in Spain, in particular in Madrid, they are very fond of littering in bars. The popularity of the establishment is calculated by the number of napkins and cleanings on the floor.

In addition to rows of colorful tanks, on the streets of Barcelona there are lonely pillars with a porthole. This is a garbage teleport - everything that falls into it falls deep underground, is compressed and then removed special equipment. In general, being a garbage man in Barcelona is not considered a shameful job. It pays quite well, so the Spaniards, especially in times of crisis, prefer to clean the streets themselves rather than give the work to migrants.

FINES IN ENGLAND

In London, the problem of waste distribution is closely monitored, but it is rarely cleaned up. It all depends on the area where you live. Somewhere the streets are cleaned every day (tourist center), and somewhere once every two to three weeks. Garbage is collected from the house only once a week.

Apparently, the conscientiousness and correctness of the British is slightly less than the German, so the authorities motivate the population by putting pressure on greed. For incorrect sorting, you can pay a fine of about 1,000 pounds (about 50,000 rubles). You can even be fined for having the wrong trash can (there are only three) on your front lawn or path on the wrong day of the week (certain trash is picked up on a designated day).

In every UK supermarket you can find special containers for old mobile phones and clothes. In addition, the kingdom monitors not only the composition, but also the weight of the garbage bag. The so-called “two-finger rule” even applies here - a filled bag should weigh just enough to be held by two fingers.

CONTEMPORARY ART IN THE USA

The United States is no less concerned than the Old World about the impending environmental disaster. A small example for awareness: at least 2.5 million are thrown away every hour in the USA. plastic bottles, each of which takes 700 years to completely decompose.

New York is one of the largest cities in the world, but there is a clear rule: no matter how dirty the streets may be in the evening, by 6 am the city must be as clean as a nun’s thoughts. New York has developed a powerful government program for waste disposal and recycling. And it works.

For example, recycling metals saves enough resources to light and heat 18 million private homes. Not bad, right? In general, Americans are so concerned about their trash that they are turning recycling into an object of modern art.

For example, there is a design project called NYC Garbage - a website that sells transparent boxes with impressively arranged trash from different streets of New York.

MOTIVATING THE HOMELESS IN SOUTH AMERICA

Let's look at the situation in South America - everything is not so rosy there, but progress is obvious. The authorities are trying to act creatively. In Brazil and Mexico, very poor people are involved in waste collection in an interesting way. For 6 bags of garbage you get one bag of food (in Brazil) and coupons for vegetables (in Mexico). Every week, 102 thousand people receive food in 54 poor areas, which allows us to collect 400 tons of waste every month.

MADE IN CHINA

But let's rush to Asia, because there is always special relationship with reality. Let's take China for example. Garbage collection in this country is a separate branch of business.

Every morning, a garbage man comes out and collects cardboard, bottles, and polystyrene foam, after which he immediately takes it to recycling and gets paid for it. But this is still not enough. China on at the moment is one of largest producers household waste- two-thirds of Chinese cities are densely surrounded by garbage dumps, one-quarter of cities no longer have space to store it. The total weight of household waste in China is 7 billion tons and 97% of it is not recycled. But this in no way prevents the Chinese from buying waste from European countries in order to recycling into various products under the umbrella famous brand"made in China".

DISCIPLINE AND MENTALITY

The situation is completely different in neighboring Singapore. On the contrary, it is recognized as the cleanest, but not so much because Singaporeans are prone to cleanliness and order. It’s just that the authorities have introduced desperately harsh sanctions, and there are chances of misbehavior literally at every step.

The price list is something like this:

• feed a pigeon with bread - from 500 to 1000 SGD,
• have a snack on the street - 1000 SGD,
• chew gum on the street - 1000 SGD,
• spit on the street - 1000 SGD.

But in addition to financial bankruptcy, there is also the bright prospect of prison and even the death penalty - I don’t want to walk away!

What a difference - Mumbai, free from prejudices! In this city of 20 million people, no one will be embarrassed even if you dump a truckload of scraps and plastic in the middle of the nature reserve. Gandhi. And most likely, nearby you will find a larger pile, near which a melancholy Indian cow is thoughtfully chewing something.

In public transport, most often there are no windows and the doors are always open, not only because of the heat, but so that people can safely throw out their trash. Poor people collect junk to build a roof over their heads, but the slop is still poured into the street.

Basically, there are scavengers in Mumbai, but they will never win this battle. The merciless Indian sun is much more effective - literally within a day, most of the food waste turns into fertilizer for the soil.

Concern for the environment is not the strongest side of the Russian mentality, but there is hope that the example of more developed countries will have an impact on compatriots, because the cure for devastation, as we know, begins with the head, and not with the closets. published

P.S. And remember, just by changing your consciousness, we are changing the world together! © econet

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Benefits, banknotes and garbage teleport

Back in the middle of the last century, the problem of garbage was not so acute. The most developed countries simply brought it to Africa and continued to develop further. But very quickly nature showed that everything in it is cyclical. In medieval cities, people simply threw garbage out the window and ended up with the plague. Europeans and Americans received garbage islands on their territories and many other problems from the garbage that arrived from Africa, which they sent there. Waste dumped in the desert could not simply dissolve in a vacuum. Since then, most developed countries have made great progress in terms of disposal and recycling. They approached the issue pragmatically, as always, and very quickly learned to make huge money from it.

The garbage business began with separation. But not territories or financial flows, but garbage. In European cities, there was massive propaganda about how good it is to put garbage in different bags, and how bad it is to dump it in one pile. Separate collection made it possible to separate organics, household waste, glass, plastic, paper, batteries, and metals at the consumer stage. Secondary sorting took place directly on the conveyor, and then each recycler sent the waste to where it saw fit.

But if you don’t want to give it away, but rather receive a few banknotes, collect and sort not only your own, but also other people’s garbage. This is how some German schoolchildren earn money. Waste-to-fuel plants are also popular in the Netherlands. And here, for collecting and separating waste, you can get coupons for a discount on utility bills, and even for the purchase of housing.

The Spaniards, unlike other European residents, are not so thrifty. It's common for them to have trash on the streets. Some cities decided to deal with this in a very original way. There are special teleports on the streets of Barcelona. When you throw garbage at them, it immediately ends up in an incinerator.

Surprisingly, the British, who are prim according to legend, are also not the cleanest. In some areas, trash may only be picked up once or twice a week. The authorities are fighting against dirty people, punishing them with a pound. Even improperly placed bins on your front lawn can result in a fine of around £1,000.

Plastic is one of the most important pollutants of our time.

Plastic is one of the most polluting materials for environment. Polymers are cheap, they are universal, they can be used literally anywhere. As a result, almost half of human waste is polymers. Under natural conditions, they take hundreds of years to decompose. During the decomposition process they are released harmful substances, such as styrene, phenol, formaldehyde, etc. However, plastic is difficult and unprofitable to recycle. This way, not even 10% of plastic waste is recycled in the world.

One of the global solutions in the fight against plastic is the creation of biopolymers. Already, many of them are actively used in various areas of life. In medicine, during surgical operations, water-soluble polymers are used, which are assimilated by the human body without harm. There are much fewer of them in other areas. However, with the development of technology, bioplastics are increasingly appearing among conventional packaging and household products. This happens because previously it was simply not profitable for manufacturers to invest in this industry. The production of bioplastic was many times more expensive. But with the development of technological progress, obstacles are gradually being eliminated. In 2013, the biopolymer market was just under $65 million. Now it has approximately tripled. Projected by 2020 total number bioplastics will account for 5-7% of all polymers. Now it's about 1%.

One of the most common biopolymers at the moment is polylactide. It is extracted from lactic acid. The Swiss company Sulzer has created a plant for the production of such plastics in the Netherlands, where about 5,000 tons of biopolymers are produced per year. Interestingly, the company did not have to completely change the technology. To produce bioplastics, it was enough to slightly modernize the enterprise for the production of conventional polymers. Even more interesting is that one of the main shareholders of this company is a financial group from Russia - Renova.

Plastic recycling is also cultivated in Switzerland itself. To simplify the process, it is customary in the country to separate waste not just by quality, but also by color. In this case, the lids from the containers are stored in a separate container.

In the United States, polymer waste is dealt with in different ways. For example, in Minneapolis and St. Pau, it is generally prohibited to sell food in plastic packaging unless it is made from biopolymers. The states have a program for sorting polymer waste, which is encouraged by the state. For collected bottles, citizens receive various preferences - from monetary rewards to benefits and bonuses. And one of the US universities has come close to technologies that in the future can help get rid of plastic in principle. The plastic is placed in a barrel with a catalyst and heated for 3 hours at a temperature of 700 degrees. The plastic is then turned into carbon, which is used to charge the batteries. They say that they work much better and longer than others.

In Japan, 20 years ago, laws were passed that strictly limited the use of hydrocarbon polymers. Legal entities They pay much less taxes if they sort or recycle such waste themselves. Individuals receive various preferences, for example, in the form of reduced utility bills, etc.

In Germany they approached the problem differently. In addition to the fact that sorting and separating waste is a cult among them, German brands clothing also uses recycled plastic. The Puma brand produced a special model range clothing called InCycle. The German “circle” (that’s how the name is translated) included traditional sportswear made from natural fabrics interspersed with polyester, which was extracted from recycled plastic bottles. The entire collection was created from biodegradable materials. The company has installed special bins in its stores where worn-out shoes can be thrown away. The part that is not biodegradable will be used to produce new clothes. The other will become polyester granulate, which, according to the manufacturer, is not dangerous to nature.

In Edmonton, Canada, they have learned how to make biofuel from plastic waste. It is mainly used for racing cars. Methanol is obtained from waste, which allows the car to reach great speed. Processed products are also used to heat the city.

In China, scientists conducted an experiment with the decomposition of plastic using petroleum ether and iridium. The plastic is heated with this catalyst at a temperature of 150 degrees. What is obtained as a result of decomposition can be used as fuel. The real drawback is that part of the catalyst can decompose 30 parts of plastic. Considering that iridium is an expensive material, its commercial use is currently not profitable. Scientists continue to work to reduce the cost of technology.

Plastic recycling in Russia

In Russia, the problem of recycling plastic, like many other types of waste, is quite acute. One of the main problems is that we do not fully understand what to do with plastic, how to sort it, etc. This is not counting infrastructure problems, lack of technology, and laws. At the same time, Russia is still taking certain steps in the fight against plastic.

For example, scientists at Samara University have developed a technology for creating bioplastics based on organic waste, herbs and fruits. At Kemerovo University, work was carried out on a genetically modified plant based on tephroseris (field cross), which is capable of decomposing plastic.

In the Komi Republic, in the city of Yemva, there is a plant for the production of paving slabs from recycled plastic. There are special bins in the city where the population throws away plastic container. As a result, 30 m2 of plastic paving slabs are produced every day.

Polymer waste is one of the main problems XXI century. Different countries deal with it in different ways. But one thing is clear: waste recycling is possible on a par with virtual reality, IT, gadgets are becoming one of the most promising areas of business.

The most common method of waste disposal is waste incineration. Today there are a huge number of plants for incinerating solid waste, but this method, like burying garbage, is harmful to the environment. By the way, only degradable garbage can be buried in the ground, but this rule is not observed in all countries. Recycling of waste, that is, its processing for further use, is the optimal method of waste disposal. There are not many waste processing plants in the world, but it is this method of working with waste that helps to level the ecological balance - to create a balance in the relationship between man and nature.

In the USA, many countries of Europe and Asia, waste sorting is common. The organization of this process is optimized and simplified as much as possible, since sorting begins at the stage of waste disposal. The legislation of many countries obliges their citizens to sort waste into different containers and bags, which have their own color and designation. For example, in almost all prefectures of Japan, citizens are subject to a large fine for violations of waste sorting or refusal to do so.

France

The French government also did not remain indifferent to environmental problems, so every garbage can in the country is equipped with a special chip that regulates the activities of the garbage truck. The chip shows the container's fullness and the date of its removal, which helps waste collection agencies organize routing efficiently, saving time and fuel costs.

Japan

Returning to the land of the rising sun, it is worth noting that garbage here is treated very carefully. Just look at the sensational scandal about a man who threw out garbage in the wrong place. The police gave him warnings, but he ignored them. The case ended in prison. For residents of many countries, this story may seem incredible, but not for the Japanese, who do everything to preserve the environment.

So how do they recycle garbage in Japan? It is burned and the thermal energy is used for heating. Household appliances, furniture, cars are dismantled for further production. Near every Japanese home you can see different plastic containers where three types of waste are stored: food, household and unnecessary things. Thus, we see that waste sorting begins at home, and every citizen contributes to preserving the environment and recycling waste.

The Japanese have learned to recycle waste in such a way that they even make construction materials from organic waste.

Brazil

Brazil is not the most developed country, which, like all countries in South America, has certain difficulties. However, this is where the trend towards recycling is very strong. For example, the city of Curitiba ranked first in the world in collecting household waste, having value. Almost all plastic, paper, metal and glass are recycled here. The solution turned out to be successful - to involve the poor in collecting waste. They receive cash rewards or bags of food for collecting waste. This approach allows us to collect 400 tons of garbage every month.

USA

Garbage collection in America occurs in plastic bags, which are stored in containers located near every home. Government services take containers for sorting to send garbage for recycling. Paper, plastic, cans, bottles - all these materials are used to make products labeled “made from waste.” The remaining waste is buried.

At one time there were problems with metal cans in the country, but with the help of a reward system for delivering garbage, they were solved. Today, almost every American institution has a press for cardboard, cans, and paper.

Finland

A special feature of waste collection in Finland is street containers that look like small boxes. The garbage storage itself is underground. Many containers are connected to special vacuum pipes, thanks to which the waste immediately goes to processing plants. The speed of debris movement is 25-30 meters per second.

The priority is deep processing garbage. The glass is crushed and the crumbs are sold to glassware companies. As a result, one bottle is used approximately 30 times in the country.

Plastic waste is burned in the country. It is pressed and created into briquettes. Waste is burned at special stations at a temperature of 1.3 thousand degrees. Garbage is processed into electricity.

Austria

Half of the country's waste is incinerated. Vienna alone is home to four waste incineration plants.

In addition, Austria wants to phase out the use of minerals in energy. For this they want to use alternative sources. Including energy generated from burning waste.

About three thousand people are involved in this field of activity, and the profession of waste collector in Austria is not considered a low-level one.

Sweden

Sweden is one of the leaders in waste collection. The country recycles 99% of waste. Half of them are used to generate electrical and thermal energy. In general, waste collection in this country complies with the standards adopted in the European Union.

All families in the country are required to sort waste. Many people have five to seven containers in their home. This country is also actively introducing the method of underground air vents. Although this requires a large investment, it will ultimately save on waste transportation.

The country is actively introducing a system of deposits for the cost of packaging. That is, its price is already included in the price of the product.

United Arab Emirates

Recently, the UAE has begun to actively develop in many directions. Activities related to waste collection and recycling were no exception.

Several years ago it became clear that the main landfill could be full by 2022. Therefore, the authorities began to seriously address the problem of collection and processing.

To accustom residents to the new rules, a special tariff was introduced for those who collect garbage separately. In addition, various competitions are held. For example, donate an iPad for responsible waste collection.

The country also has special measures to support businesses related to waste recycling activities.

Conclusion

Many other developed countries such as Canada, Germany, Norway, Netherlands, etc. collect and sort waste using the same principle. Garbage suitable for recycling is necessarily used, the rest of the waste goes to landfill or is destroyed.

The problem of environmental pollution would be solved quite simply if all countries and each of their residents in particular were interested in this. However, humanity is still far from fully understanding its own problems. All that remains is to express the hope that we will have time to learn how to recycle garbage and protect the environment before we find ourselves overwhelmed with our own waste.

With its history, garbage shows how ideas have changed not only about issues of hygiene and health, but also urban planning, the social structure of society and even international relations. This becomes clear not only from the composition of the waste, but also from the changing methods of its disposal.

The selection tells how the garbage has come a long way - from piles of broken clay pots outside the settlement to tons of nuclear waste - and what people learned along the way. A village of waste collectors in China, an electronics dump in Ghana, a ship graveyard in India - how the world gets rid of waste.

The first municipal trash bins were recorded in Athens in 400 BC. e. Then all waste was collected in special baskets, which were then emptied in designated places outside the city. In Ancient Rome, garbage was also transported outside city boundaries. In the southwest of Rome, the artificial hill of Monte Testaccio, one of the largest ancient dumps in the world, still remains. Monte Testaccio, almost 50 m high, consists entirely of fragments of 25 million broken amphorae.

In the Middle Ages in Europe, garbage on the streets became one of the causes of mass diseases. Only in the 15th century, after the plague epidemic, many European cities began to consider the issue of paving streets: before that, citizens had to wade through puddles of mud, feces and food waste. However, the first wastewater systems began to appear only with the advent of the era of industrialization.

The first system was built in London, in the Thames Estuary, in late XIX century. Engineer Joseph Bazeljet designed a system of ten sewage canals that flowed to the North Sea. Previously, all waste was poured directly into the Thames.

In the 20th century, with the development of technology and production, the composition of waste changed qualitatively. Now cardboard, plastic, chemical and medical waste have been added to food waste. But at the same time for a long time the method of disposal remained the same: garbage was buried, thrown into the ocean or burned. Only in the second half of the 20th century, along with the growth of the hippie movement in America, interest in the problem of ecology appeared. On April 22, 1970, the first Earth Day event took place, in which several thousand educational institutions across America took part. Peaceful demonstrations called for the development of environmental protection methods.

Today, depending on the region, the issue of garbage is solved differently. In some countries, residents are busy diligently separating paper from cans at home. Other countries, like Switzerland, import their neighbors' waste and burn it in their factories. Thirdly, people work in landfills, sorting out garbage brought from Europe and America, sometimes in containers under the guise of humanitarian aid.

In Switzerland, everyone pays a fee for a certain size of their rubbish bin. As a result, to save money on waste, many businesses buy compactors that compact waste into cubes and thus allow them to pay for an additional bin. Both residents and businesses have become so adept at compacting and distributing their waste that modern waste incinerators are running out of raw materials. Many of them aim to burn waste and generate electricity. To recoup and justify the construction of factories, some Swiss cantons have to import waste from Italy.

In Japan, garbage rules are determined by the municipality, or to be more precise - waste plant which belongs to him. On average, each resident has to divide their waste into the following categories - plastic, glass, cans, cardboard and paper. Garbage must be separated separately into combustible and non-combustible. If you bought a cutlet in a plastic wrapper and then washed the container, then it should be put in plastic trash, and if not washed, in combustible trash. When the Japanese want to recycle large electrical items, they buy a special stamp and stick it on the item before throwing it away. The value of the stamp depends on the item. For example, throwing out a refrigerator can cost between $50 and $100. That's why many Japanese don't throw away large trash, but give it to friends for free.

In Beijing, all types of recyclable waste - from plastic bottles to iron cans - do not have to be taken to collection points; they just need to be taken out onto the street in the morning and sold to a passing garbage collector. The scavenger, in turn, will take the loot to the outskirts of the capital, Dong Xiao Kou Village, known as the scavenger village.

In this small village, near new buildings, mountains of cardboard, old tires, dishes and paper waste rise. Residents of the village, mostly visitors from remote, poor provinces, spend 24 hours a day here, clearing away the rubble. Some live in huts they built themselves from boards or metal plates found right there in a landfill.

In the vicinity of Accra, the capital of Ghana, there is the world's largest electronics dump - the Agboshbloshie dump. Here, on the Atlantic coast, computers, televisions, monitors, old cassette recorders, sewing machines and telephones are brought from all over the world and dumped in one big pile.

The trash of some turns here into the wealth of others: people come from all over the country to electronic waste to make money. Landfill workers break equipment into pieces or burn its individual components and collect aluminum and copper parts. At the end of the day, they receive a cash reward for copper and aluminum at the collection point. Average earnings per day are $2-3. Most Agboshbloshi workers die from diseases and poisoning caused by poisonous substances, toxins and radiation.

The city of Alang on the northwestern coast of India is known as the largest ship graveyard in the world. Along 10 km of coastline, just like dolphins washed up by the waves, old cargo and passenger ships lie here. Over the 20 years of the enterprise’s existence, more than 6,500 ships have been dismantled here.

Old ships are brought here from all over the world, often without preliminary disinfection, and then workers with their hands or with the help simple tools take them apart here. On average, 40 people die on the territory of the enterprise each year due to chemicals and accidental fires.

The artificial island of Thilafushi, filled to the very edges with garbage, stands out brightly from the paradisiacal landscape of the tropical Maldives. The country's government decided to create this island due to the growing amount of garbage caused by the influx of tourists.

Since 1992, garbage has been brought here from all the islands of the archipelago, and today its amount reaches several hundred tons every day. Thilafushi lies just 1m above sea level, increasing the risk of chemicals and other waste entering the ocean and gradually destroying the ecosystem.

According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, 40% of food produced in the United States is wasted. At the same time, food is wasted at all stages from production to consumption: on farms, during transport, in supermarkets and in the kitchen at home. According to statistics provided by the council, the average American family spends up to $2,000 a year on food that ends up being thrown away. In addition, many US states are suffering from severe drought, while in neighboring states 25% of water is wasted, namely to irrigate fields with grains that are ultimately not consumed. There is also a problem with garbage dumps: they release gases into the air that are no less dangerous to the environment than carbon dioxide.

Garbage in modern world often finds a second use - in art, the restaurant business and even construction. But one way or another, all the original garbage ideas and projects are aimed at once again drawing people’s attention to the overabundance of waste production in the modern world. For Copenhagen, for example, the architectural bureau BIG designed a new generation waste incineration plant. The plant will not only process waste into electricity, but also remind citizens of the amount of electricity generated. carbon dioxide. Every time 1 ton of carbon dioxide is produced, a smoke ring with a diameter of 30 m will be released from the plant's chimney. At night, the ring will be illuminated in different colors. The roof of the plant will be used as a ski slope. Lifts to the top of the slope will run along the sides of the plant. Construction of the plant is scheduled to be completed in 2016.

Spanish artist Francesco de Pajaro travels the world with his project Art is Trash and creates different cities art installations made from trash. Francesco finds a pile of rubbish on the street and in a few hours repaints and moves the objects in this dump so that they turn into an installation. As a result, discarded boxes, pieces of furniture and plastic bottles are turned into playful characters.

First in the United States, and later in Europe, the dumpster diving movement - in other words, picking through garbage cans - has become widespread in the last few years. Followers of the movement search for scraps of food and suitable clothing in the garbage, thereby trying to contribute to the fight against overproduction and excessive consumption of goods. Many divers manage to find kilograms of fresh vegetables, and some even make a boat from the found building materials.

There are many other examples of non-trivial uses of garbage. Artists assemble paintings from it, photographers create whole series of portraits of people surrounded by their own garbage, entrepreneurs open restaurants with dishes made from food that was not purchased on time in the supermarket, architects and planners use garbage as a building material, as, for example, in Japan when building an artificial island Odaibo. Over the course of its history, garbage has gone through a long journey of transformation - from a foul-smelling landfill to a contemporary art gallery. But, unfortunately, the very basic attitude of people towards waste has not changed, and people have not really learned anything in thousands of years: we still do not stop consuming immoderately.

Every new day, humanity leaves behind tons of garbage that accumulates on the planet, causing it irreparable harm. The problem of its processing throughout the world is becoming more acute - and is being solved differently everywhere. How much does it cost taxpayers in different countries to recycle them, when will landfills become a thing of the past, and whether progressive methods of fighting plastic will hurt citizens’ wallets? RG’s correspondents talk about this.

In American cities, garbage collection is most often carried out at a single rate. On average, the cost of this service ranges from $10 to $40 per month. Hazardous chemicals are disposed of separately for $50-$100, old furniture or household appliances - for 80-130 dollars, and construction waste - for about 200 dollars. IN recent years Increasingly, municipal authorities are introducing a differentiated scale to encourage residents to reduce the amount of waste they throw away. For example, in Newport, Virginia, a 60-gallon (about 227 liters) tank will cost $22 per month to remove, and a 90-gallon (340 liters) tank will cost $28 per month. In Seattle, Washington, the smallest 12-gallon container will cost $23 per month, and the largest will cost $111.

The removal and disposal of household solid waste (MSW) in America is a profitable business, with a total annual turnover estimated at $55-60 billion. In recent decades, the share of private companies in the market for such services has steadily increased, while the share of municipal authorities has declined to about 20 percent. The United States is called a consumer society, and consumption generates more trash, which American households throw away more annually than any other country - approximately 250 million tons.

For a long time, landfills remained the cheapest and most common method of waste disposal in the United States. Until about the 1980s, about 90 percent of solid waste was transported there. But growing housing and population densities, especially near major metropolitan areas on both coasts, have led to a shortage of landfill land and rising landfill prices. Regions where the population density is low and there is enough territory make money by accepting their neighbors' garbage. For example, the state of Ohio charges other regions $35 to accept a ton of garbage, while the state of Alabama charges only $19.

In 1976, the Resource Conservation and Recycling Act was passed, which became the legal foundation for the waste industry. The document obliges all landfill operators to provide guarantees of availability financial resources not only for the period of operation of the landfill, but also for its maintenance after exhaustion of the volume and closure. As a result, the number of such testing sites in the United States decreased from eight thousand in 1988 to approximately two thousand by 2010. The norm has become the use of separate containers for different types garbage. In addition, rising energy prices have made it profitable to build waste incineration plants with subsequent energy generation. Today there are 86 such enterprises in the United States. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, approximately 50 percent of trash goes to landfills, about 30-35 percent is recycled, and the rest is incinerated.

Germany

The cost of garbage removal and recycling in Germany depends on the location of the apartment or house. The results of a study by the private institute IW Consult on the example of 100 German cities showed that the difference can reach up to 300 euros. Thus, in Flensburg (Schleswig-Holstein), the removal and disposal of household and bulky waste, food waste and waste paper costs the property owner or tenant 111 euros per year, and in Leverkusen (North Rhine-Westphalia) - 481 euros. This amount can be up to 10 percent of annual utility costs, although its share is usually not that high. Based on the modest salary of German citizens of 20 thousand euros per year, it can be argued that this burden does not fall heavily on the pockets of consumers. The fee for waste removal depends on many other factors. The volume of garbage cans and collection intervals, as well as the population density per square meter, play a big role. In addition, when calculating costs, the budget debt of an individual settlement for the construction of a waste incineration plant, and also - which is important for the regions of the former GDR - for the reclamation of landfills.

In general, the structure of financing waste collection and disposal in Germany is very complex. For removal and burning, as well as reuse household waste from the so-called "container with general waste“The owners of apartments and houses pay. Ultimately, the entire amount falls on the shoulders of citizens in the form of utility costs. Enterprises that supply their goods to stores pay for the disposal of garbage from the so-called “yellow container” in which Germans collect plastic and iron packaging. However, concerns do not have to pay for the final disposal of packaging of their export products. Some companies include the cost of disposal in the price of their goods, so the ordinary consumer must partly shell out for the separate processing of packaging according to this scheme.

Owners of private houses pay for the installation of waste bins for paper and cardboard themselves, and the costs for bins in their yards apartment buildings fall on the shoulders of the local administration. However, part of the fee is levied on businesses that use cardboard packaging. Glass and plastic bottles are usually accepted back in stores for money. Glass containers are reused, and granulate is made from plastic bottles for recycling. Bottles of wine or spirits alcoholic drinks and glass jars are collected in public glass containers, which are also paid for from the pockets of manufacturers or local budgets. So-called “bio-containers” for organic (mainly food) waste will now be mandatory for all residents. The removal and composting of this waste will also be paid for by the citizens themselves.

Germany is one of the most wasteful countries in Europe: more than 600 kilograms of household waste per year per citizen. However, Germany completely abandoned landfills 30 years ago. As Thomas Fischer, a representative of the German Environmental Aid union, told RG, landfills are Stone Age, the most harmful method of waste disposal for nature and people. It completes the five-point scale of the effectiveness of possible waste recycling methods. The cleanest way is to avoid packaging. In second place is the reuse of raw materials. Recycling is the third option. However, the share of extracted recyclable materials fluctuates between 31 and 41 percent. Therefore, the fourth method is still widely practiced in Germany - the use of waste incineration plants.

Currently, the refurbishment of old landfills, a legacy of the 1960s and 1970s, is almost complete. Thomas Fischer emphasizes that landfills where waste is dumped indiscriminately, such as radiators, batteries, transformers, organic matter, are especially dangerous for the population and the environment. food waste. However, there were no such landfills in Germany. Typically, waste was transported to landfills already sorted. Moreover, they were all located far from populated areas.

Payment for the construction and maintenance of waste incineration plants initially comes from three budgets - federal, state and local. Each plant costs 200-300 million euros. Since it is impractical to build separate small installations, there are only 54 high-capacity waste incineration plants in Germany. Local authorities are legally required to enter into contracts with recycling companies or incinerators, which they then pay from their budgets, essentially collected from local residents. Such a system operates thanks to the strictest and consistent financial control at enterprises and local administrations.

Italy

In Italy, the waste recycling tax consists of two quotas - fixed and variable. The fixed part refers to square meters of housing, the variable is calculated based on the number of family members. Recently, a real “garbage” scandal broke out in Italy: by mistake, the municipalities calculated the tax in such a way that each family member had to pay an average of about 40-50 euros per year for each square meter of the house. Although the real cost is only 1-2 euros. It turned out that large cities, such as Milan, charged their citizens generally 70-80 percent more than the norm. The RG correspondent also became a victim of this mistake and is now going to challenge it.

Over the past decade, Italy has experienced a series of “garbage crises”, from which many large cities have not been able to escape to this day. The main “losers” include, first of all, the capital of Italy. All the problems with waste in the Eternal City began after the closure in 2013 of the largest landfill in Europe (25 hectares) - the Malagrotta landfill. At one time, it caused enormous damage to the ecology of the Galeria Valley, polluting the air and poisoning the soil with arsenic, mercury and ammonia. Since a replacement for Malagrotte has never been found, there is still essentially nowhere to unload the garbage collected by city services. As a result, some areas of Rome, including the central ones, from time to time become overgrown with mountains of waste and are filled with stench, which the website “Disgusting Rome” reports. There, townspeople keep a “garbage chronicle” on a daily basis, posting photos from local landfills. It got to the point that the EU authorities intervened in the matter, officially threatening the authorities of Rome and the Lazio region with sanctions.

Since local enterprises and landfills cannot cope with the processing and sorting of waste (about 5-6 thousand tons daily), the capital is forced to send garbage not only to other regions of Italy, but even abroad. Since August 2016, a recycling plant near Vienna in the town of Zwentendorf regularly receives “garbage trains” from Rome. Transporting 100 thousand tons of waste costs the city treasury 14 million euros per year. Even the serious penalties provided for the reluctance of the Romans to comply with the rules of garbage etiquette cannot completely resolve the issue. For example, for cardboard cups, pieces of paper and chewing gum thrown past the trash can, the offender must pay up to 150 euros. A cigarette butt that does not end up in the trash can is estimated at 300 euros, and an illegally placed abandoned table or refrigerator on the street will cost its owner 500 euros.

South Korea

An RG correspondent in Seoul receives a general bill for rent, which includes electricity, water, cleaning the area, elevator maintenance, and garbage removal. Garbage is included in the “other services” section - there are about six or seven of them there, including washing parking spaces. These services make up no more than ten percent of the entire receipt. The total rent bill usually comes out to 163-217 thousand Korean won (9,400-12,500 rubles) per month, and the average salary for middle-class Koreans is 3.8-4.3 million Korean won (218-250 thousand rubles).

About a quarter of a century ago, the country's authorities had to spend a lot of effort, time, money and nerves to explain to fellow citizens that it was necessary to introduce a new waste treatment system. It involves separate sorting of waste by residents themselves. In the end, this system took root and operates to this day, gradually becoming more and more strict. Garbage disposal is not a cheap business, but there is no other way out; all costs fall mainly on residents of houses or owners of certain institutions and organizations.

Many foreigners complain that there are not enough trash cans in Korea. This is true, but it was done intentionally to make people more careful about the issue of waste management. Now you can’t just collect all the waste you have in a bag and throw it in the trash bin at the entrance to your house. All garbage must be separated into the following categories: paper, plastic, polyethylene, glass, iron, food waste and “other garbage”. For the last category, each administrative district of a large city issues its own special bags in which all other waste must be packed. If you threw it away in a simple plastic bag, then the garbage trucks that come every morning will not pick it up, but you will be identified by video cameras that are installed near each garbage complex near a residential area. And then a hefty fine will come. The same thing will happen if you do not carefully sort your waste into categories.

Each garbage complex has a special box where leftover food should be thrown. But it will open only after special card, which every resident of a particular house has. When loaded into a box, food waste is automatically weighed, and at the end of the month the total volume is summed up; based on the weight, the disposal bill is determined and added to the total receipt for rent and other household services.

You can’t just throw out an old TV, computer, sofa and other equipment or furniture in Korea. To do this, you need to submit an application to waste processing companies, receive an invoice for the disposal of this garbage, and only after paying the check will your unnecessary sofa or refrigerator be taken away. As you might guess, the larger and heavier the item, the more expensive it is to process. In some cases, the bill can even run into hundreds of dollars. Why is it that in Korea they often gladly give away old equipment for free - throwing it away will cost a pretty penny.

There are waste disposal plants in Korea, but they already operate closed-cycle systems, thanks to which there is no smell or other unpleasant side effects you won't feel it. Suffice it to say that waste processing complexes are often located directly in large cities at underground levels, and if they don’t tell you that waste is being disposed of somewhere nearby, you won’t even guess.

In general, Korea has made and is making a lot of efforts to optimize the waste disposal process as much as possible, making it compact and environmentally friendly. This approach is inevitable, if only because the country has one of the highest population densities in the world, and there is simply no place for landfills.

Brazil

In Brazil, there is no uniform government fee for waste removal and recycling. Officially, these responsibilities are assigned to municipalities, which spend funds from their own budgets on “garbage” needs. Over time, the cost of fighting waste began to exceed the financial capabilities of municipalities, and since 2018, some have proactively begun to introduce a special tax. One of the first to take this path was the city of Curitiba, the capital of the state of Parana, with a population of almost 2 million people. The new tax was calculated based on the area and type of premises. For private properties of low-income citizens whose total area does not exceed 70 square meters, a discount of 50 percent is set, and the total amount is 135 reais per year (2,300 rubles). For other owners of residential premises - 274 reais per year (4,700 rubles), for commercial premises - 475 reais (8,200 rubles).

To understand the big picture: the country’s largest city, Sao Paulo, with a population of more than 12 million people a year, spends more than 1.5 billion reais (about 25 billion rubles) on waste collection and removal. In general, Brazil annually allocates more than 16 billion reais (268 billion rubles) for these purposes.

In 2010 National politics in the field of solid waste regulation received the status of law. Its implementation was pursued by the authorities’ ambitious plans to restore order in this area. However, the good goal - to solve the garbage problem as quickly as possible - did not bring the expected results. The volumes of waste produced in the country correspond to the level of developed countries - this is 390 kilograms per year per person. At the same time, approaches to waste disposal are more similar to those of poor African countries. It was assumed that by 2014, when the country hosted the World Cup, classic primitive landfills under open air. But if their number has decreased, it is only slightly. Today in Brazil there are about 3 thousand such sites, most of them are ordinary landfills, where there is no system of waste separation, land reclamation or sorting. According to recent estimates, the country produces up to 80 thousand tons of household waste annually, and almost half ends up in such landfills. The rest of the mass goes to more modern landfills, where, according to the law, the following elements must be present: a waterproof base, systems for pumping out and processing the pulp formed over time, installations for capturing gases released during the decomposition process, as well as other electronic measuring instruments for environmental monitoring. But, as practice has shown, the law is not observed everywhere and many of these modern landfills built in recent years do not meet the declared standards.

Fines for detected violations cannot be compared with the income received from landfills. The latest example of such a discrepancy is the case in the city of São Sebastian do Paraiso in the state of Minas Gerais). In 2013, the local prefecture allocated 2.5 million reais (approximately 44 million rubles) for the construction of a modern landfill, capable of receiving up to 50 tons of waste per day. Moreover, this project had the status of a pilot and was intended to serve as an example for the entire state. But everything was limited to the appearance of an ordinary landfill with external signs its modernized version, and the fine for violations in the field of environmental protection amounted to only 49 thousand reais (855 thousand rubles).

At the same time, there are also positive examples. At the end of 2017, the largest landfill in the capital of Brazil ceased operation. Latin America"Lichao da Estrutural." Located just 20 kilometers from the official residence of the country's president, it existed for almost 60 years. During this time, more than 40 million tons of waste from Brasilia and the surrounding area were transported to its territory.

The results of implementing a waste sorting and recycling policy can also be called modest. In overall percentage terms, there has been a significant increase since 2010 - about 140 percent. But in reality, only 18 percent of all municipalities in the country use these technologies in one form or another. Even in the two largest metropolitan areas, Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, these figures are negligible: only 2.5 and 1.9 percent of all waste produced in them is sorted and sent for recycling.

According to local experts, the main problem preventing the rooting modern approaches to waste collection and recycling is the lack of funding. According to some estimates, Brazil would need more than 11 billion reais (almost 193 billion rubles) of investment to get rid of obsolete landfills. And more than 15 billion reais (262 billion rubles) in the short term to maintain the functionality of the new system. It is not possible to find such funds. But there is also good news. Paradoxically, the difficulties in the Brazilian economy have led to a decrease in the waste produced by the population by more than 2 percent for the first time in 13 years.

We've reached the bottom

Debris was found at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest place on Earth. Sensational news was reported by the Japan Marine Science and Technology Agency. Absolute record was the discovery of a plastic bag at a depth of 10,898 meters,” says the report of Japanese scientists who explore the World Ocean using deep-sea vehicles.

They found that 33 percent of all man-made debris in the ocean is plastic. Another 26 percent are metal products. Everything else is rubber, fishing gear, glass. Sometimes marine life uses plastic objects for their own needs - for example, actiniarian corals are attached to it. But at the same time, there have been many cases where plastic, first of all, small items like lighters or bottle caps, gets inside living organisms - for example, it is swallowed by birds and fish, which leads to their death. Another problem is photodegradation of plastic. Floating on the surface, it disintegrates under the influence sunlight into smaller and smaller pieces, but still retains its structure. Marine organisms confuse plastic crumbs with plankton and try to feed on them, which is also fraught with dire consequences.

The huge amount of garbage entering the World Ocean has led to the formation of entire “garbage continents”. The most famous of them was the “Pacific Garbage Gyre” - a gigantic accumulation of plastic and other anthropogenic waste in the central part of Pacific Ocean in the Northern Hemisphere with an area of ​​up to 1.5 million square kilometers (this is larger than the state of Texas). According to the American oceanographer and yachtsman Charles Moore, who began writing about the “garbage continent” in the late 1990s, 80 percent of pollution comes there from land, 20 percent is thrown out from ships.

The Ocean Cleanup project, initiated by 18-year-old environmental enthusiast Boyan Slat in 2013, is expected to launch in the summer of 2018. Floating plastic barriers will drift across the ocean, pushing debris floating on the surface ahead of them to one point where it will be collected for recycling.

Infographics: Anton Perepletchikov / Ekaterina Zabrodina