Kazakhstan to generate energy from garbage

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NUR-SULTAN. KAZINFORM - More than 9 thousand illegal dump sites have been identified in Kazakhstan owing to space monitoring, said Magzum Mirzagaliyev, Minister of Ecology, Geology and Natural Resources at a briefing in Central Communications Service.

According to Mirzagaliyev, more than 120 million tons of municipal solid waste have been accumulated at 3.5 thousand dump sites of the country. He added, that annually over 4 million tons of household waste are formed.

The Minister noted that due to the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) mechanism introduced in 2016 the share of solid waste processing increased by 6 (from 2.6% to 13.2%). There is a growth in waste processing enterprises (SMEs) - from 110 (2016) to 170 (9 months of 2019).

Space monitoring helped to identify more than 9 thousand illegal dump sites. There were eliminated 28% (2.7 thousand) with over 316 thousand tons of waste.

«In order to increase the depth of waste processing and attract investments, a new Waste-to-Energy mechanism is being implemented under the new Ecocodex. Waste-to-Energy is a method is the process of generating energy in the form of electricity and/or heat from burning waste. This will make it possible to increase the level of processing and disposal of solid waste up to 30%», said Magzum Mirzagaliyev.

The head of the Ministry of Ecology also added that in recent years, environmentalists have raised the issue of banning plastic bags in Kazakhstan. The Ministry, together with «Atameken» national chamber of entrepreneurs and the Association of Environmental Organizations of Kazakhstan concluded a memorandum on the stagewise restriction of using plastic bags.

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