(porarctic.ru) - The Russian Environmental Operator (REO), together with the regions’ authorities, is developing concession projects for municipal solid waste (MSW) facilities in the Arctic and the Far East. By the end of 2024, waste sorting, composting and reloading stations with a total capacity of 940 000 tons should appear in seven cities of the Arkhangelsk Province, Yakutia and the Krasnoyarsk Territory. Two such projects will be launched in the Arctic.
A complex MSW facility will be built with a planned capacity of 275,000 tons per year in Arkhangelsk. The planned investment is 2.9 billion rubles, the concession agreement is expected in November this year. Another major project will be implemented in Norilsk - there will be a MSW sorting station with a capacity of 110,000 tons per year and a composting station (20,000 tons per year) with a total cost of 1.2 billion rubles.
In April 2022 the REO and the Russian National Public Private Partnership Center announced that six concessions are to be prepared to create the MSW infrastructure. Financing of more than 2.8 billion rubles has been reserved for the projects in the Russian Arctic. These projects are implemented, realizing the waste reform, which has started in Russia on January 1, 2019.
MSW disposal is a serious challenge for the Arctic agglomerations. In the northern climate, waste is actually preserved in landfills for a long time, polluting the environment and worsening the quality of life in polar settlements. That is why it is necessary to consistently develop a modern infrastructure for sorting and recycling MSW.
