Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources Yerlan Nysanbayev made a report on intensification of construction of municipal solid waste processing plants in large cities with the involvement of investors at the Government session. 

According to the Akimats, in 2023 the country generated about 4.1 million tonnes of municipal waste, of which 1 million tonnes were sorted and processed, the rest was buried in landfills. Centralised waste disposal services are mainly covered by cities and large settlements, where about 80% of the country's total population lives.

"Space monitoring of only 39 large settlements revealed 5,533 unauthorised dumps last year, which indicates a significant excess of the actual volume of waste over the accounted volume. The morphological composition of municipal waste consists of about 70% of useful fractions, namely 16% of plastic, 11% of waste paper, 9% of glass, 37% of organic waste, 27% of other waste. This indicator may differ by regions," the Minister said.

For the main types of waste, such as glass, plastic and waste paper, the existing processing capacities are at a low level.  The development of MSW processing with the production of finished products requires quality secondary raw materials. For this purpose, it is necessary to establish all previous technological operations: organise collection, transportation and deep sorting of MSW.

The Government has approved a mechanism of preferential financing of projects in the sphere of waste management - the purchase of rubbish trucks, sorting lines and processing facilities. Financing is provided through the Industrial Development Fund with an interest rate of 3 per cent and a loan term from 3 to 15 years. The total amount of funds allocated is about 200 billion tenge for 3 years. 

"The project group under the Ministry held meetings with all akimats, as well as representatives of the industry business. When considering the projects, special attention was paid to analysing the current situation with municipal waste in the regions and the effectiveness of projects in terms of systemic solution of existing problems. As a result, 94 projects worth 232.2 billion tenge were selected. Implementation of projects will launch the production of finished products: paving stones, manholes, bins, glass containers, stretch film, bumpers for cars, and other consumer goods," Nysanbayev said.

In addition, 21 projects for the construction and modernisation of sorting lines with a capacity of more than 3 million tonnes per year have been worked out with the regions to the tune of more than 49.2 billion tenge, including about 10 billion tenge of private investment. 

"Implementation of the projects will make it possible to increase the capacity of sorting lines from the current 1.7 to 4.7 million tonnes and cover cities and large settlements in all regions of the country. In Aktobe, Atyrau and Abay regions there are not commissioned sorting lines with a total capacity of more than 300 thousand tonnes per year. Akimats of these regions should take measures to put the facilities into operation," the head of the department emphasised.

On processing of MSW 45 projects have been worked out, including construction of 37 new plants and modernisation of 8 existing plants with a total capacity of more than 1.2 million tonnes per year for the amount of 171.6 billion tenge, including 34.3 billion tenge of private investment. The implementation of the projects will bring the processing volume to 1.5 million tonnes per year.

"Re-launched this year, the EcoKoldau programme will help provide existing and newly established plants with the necessary raw materials. Payments will be made to special enterprises, with 7.6bn tenge earmarked for this purpose this year. As noted above, an important chain in sustainable waste management is the provision of a sufficient number of containers and rubbish trucks. According to akimats, today there are 133 thousand containers available in the country, the additional need is about 60 thousand units," the head of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources said. 

Large cities are served by 1681 units of rubbish collection equipment, the additional need is about 900 units, of which 223 units are taken into account by investment projects. Purchase of containers and rubbish trucks should be carried out at the expense of the local budget and private investment.

Yerlan Nysanbayev noted the experience of Kyzylorda region and Zhetisu region. In these regions, not only the regional centre, but also the districts have been worked out. The solution was based on the volume of waste generation, logistics and optimal placement of necessary infrastructure. This approach is proposed to be replicated in other regions, taking into account their specificity. 

"I note that all projects have been agreed with local executive bodies and will soon be sent for consideration to the Industry Development Fund. Therefore, we ask to instruct akimats to accompany each project up to commissioning, and the Industrial Development Fund to shorten the terms of consideration of applications. As it was noted at the beginning of the report, organic waste accounts for about 37% of all generated municipal waste. In order to increase the investment attractiveness of projects to obtain alternative energy from organic waste, the Ministries of Energy and Ecology are invited to jointly review approaches to their implementation," the Minister of Ecology summarised.

#Ecology #Government session #Investments