Moscow, opposition to new incinerators in densely populated neighbourhoods
Moscow (AsiaNews) - There is controversy in Russia between environmentalists and the Moscow city government, over a new municipality plan for waste management. This provides for the construction of six new incinerators a few metres from densely populated neighbourhoods, known for their green space. Pro-environment groups have mobilised immediately, launching efforts to collect signatures against the project to be sent to the new president of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Medvedev. But ecological awareness seems to be dormant among the Muscovites, and most are uninterested in the problem.
Last month, the mayor of the capital, Yury Luzhkov, signed a decree ordering, before 2012, the construction of six new incinerators within city limits. These, added to the four already in use, will burn more than three million tonnes of trash per year. They are distributed in almost all the neighbourhoods of the city, except for the centre. The cost of the project is estimated at around 2.5 billion dollars. Yasenevo, one of the most densely populated areas of the capital (174,000 inhabitants, 44,000 of them under the age of 18), is one of the sites where the future incinerators will stand. Moscow is one of the most polluted cities in the world. It produces 5.6 million tonnes of trash per year, without considering industrial waste. In 2007, Mercer Human Resource Consulting ranked Moscow as 14th on the list of the dirtiest cities.
The city government and representatives of the waste management sector defend the program: it is the only way to confront the rapid growth in the volume of solid waste. But critics emphasise the dangerous environmental impact and the excessive costs of the "obsolete system". Alexander Shuvalov, vice director of Greenpeace Russia, says that "there are no other capitals in the world with such a high number of incinerators". In Kozhukhovo, on the eastern edge of Moscow, where one of the incinerators is operated, the inhabitants complain of the foul smell in the air, which sometimes turns rose-colored, and many are thinking about selling their homes. By law, in Kozhukhovo homes can be built within 500 metres of the incineration plant. Greenpeace has launched a campaign to collect millions of signatures and to submit the problem to Medvedev.
As an alternative, environmental activists propose a program that would emphasise recycling instead of incineration. An incinerator - says Lazar Shubov, vice-president of the Waste Worker Association, quoted by The Moscow Times - costs about 350 million dollars, compared to 10 million dollars for a recycling plant, which would also have the advantage of reducing the toxic emissions generated by the presence of toxic materials in trash, like batteries and thermometers, which release mercury and dioxin. But the separation of trash on the part of the population, with the use of dedicated receptacles, is not yet in use in Russia: the majority of citizens are completely indifferent, and this represents a serious obstacle to the implementation of environmentalist proposals.
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