WASTE IMPORTS IN UKRAINE: PROBLEM OR PROSPECTS

Abstract

Solid waste recycling is a rather complex process that requires not only significant financial investments, but also deal it desire.

An example of rational waste management is Sweden, where not only the own garbage almost completely recycled, but it is also imported. It turns out that recycling can be a business, and tons of waste at Ukrainian landfills and dumps - a cheap resource. Moreover, the current energy crisis in Europe should give impetus to the development of the municipal solid waste management sector, given the possibility of creating additional energy sources, and research in this segment is becoming particularly relevant.

Strange as it may sound, domestic solid waste recycling companies lack their own raw materials (primarily cardboard and paper, glass, polymer and plastic recycling companies). And this despite the fact that millions of tons unprocessed garbage create and will creating in the future huge problems for Ukrainians. One of the main reasons for this state of affairs, according to experts, is the lack of proper institutional support for separate waste collection, which leads to the fact, that Ukrainian waste, for the most part, is of poor quality and unsuitable for recycling. Waste import in Ukraine has a forced character. The main practice of solid waste management is their disposal, although, almost 40 percent of domestic waste amount paper, glass and polymers (these are the same resource-valuable materials, that we importing). The reason is the low level of separate garbage collection, insufficient coverage of settlements by the system of separate collection, which determines the import, as well as the growth of the number of landfills.

Regional authorities in the direction of solid waste management should focus not only on the organization of collection, removal and disposal. The interest should be broader - the interest in creating a value chain, extending the life cycle of resources, its reproduction in new products. This will create additional jobs and encouraging new entrepreneurial initiatives