Press Release, 19.03.2019

The Rostov-Don branch of Yabloko sent inquiries to the Federal Service for Supervision of Natural Resource Usage (Rosprirodnadzor) in the Southern Federal District and the Minister of Nature Management and Ecology of the Rostov-Don Region. The regional office of the party demanded to provide information on the volume of municipal solid waste generated in the region for 2017 and 2018, as well as on what is planned to be done with the waste at the landfills.

Yabloko activists intend to find out the real situation with the disposal of garbage in the Rostov-Don region, in order to assess the scale of the problem.

“The situation with the disposal of domestic waste in the country can be called catastrophic. Our region is no exception in this respect. We are concerned that the authorities may allow construction of a waste recycling plant near settlements. Previously, they planned to build a plant first in the settlement of Leventsovka, then in the Myasnikovsky district. Such a decision may entail a danger to life and health of people living there. And why should the residents of Leventsovka suffer from a landfill? ”, Irina Safronova, Chairperson of Rostov-Don Yabloko, said.

The leader of the regional branch also noted that the tariffs for garbage collection for Rostov-Don residents and residents of the region grew, but in fact nothing changed. Even in some areas of Rostov-on-Don, the capital of the region, garbage is not removed on time. Also has been no redevelopment of landfill sites reclamation and improvement of the ecological situation in the region.

In addition, on 16 March, the Chair of Rostov-Don Yabloko spoke at a rally against the “garbage reform” and growth in utility tariffs in Aleksandrovka.

Yabloko is in favour of separate garbage collection and believes that the “garbage reform” in the form in which it is being carried out now is not effective. At the past Yabloko’s Federal Council in December 2018, the party proposed an alternative waste management programme “Clean Russia”. It will allow by 2030 to recycle up to 70 per cent of household waste, reduce the amount of garbage being buried at  landfills by 80 per cent and create more than 250,000 jobs.

It should be also noted an anti-garbage campaign of the Arkhangelsk branch of Yabloko “We stand up for our native land” has been going on in the region for the fifth month already.

In December 2018, a delegation of municipal deputies of Moscow handed over to the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation an open letter against the exports of Moscow garbage to other Russian regions.