In Novopolotsk, there is the only full-cycle separate waste collection and processing enterprise in the region – the communal enterprise "Biomechzavod of Household Secondary Resources".

Thanks to the installation of a new waste sorting line this year, the volume and speed of solid household waste processing have significantly increased, energy consumption has decreased, and 16 new jobs have been created. 

After processing, approximately a quarter of the waste here is converted into useful material resources, and the rest is ecologically disposed of.

According to the director of the biomech plant, Sergey Semyonchyov, the construction of the enterprise began in 2003, but it only started operating in 2010.

— The full launch of the plant was delayed for a long time due to financial difficulties, — says Sergey Olegovich. – A lot has been invested from the regional and republican budgets, there were funds from various international and Belarusian environmental programs and projects, as well as from the operator "Secondary Material Resources". Initially, we only sorted and extracted secondary resources. Then, instead of a special motor transport base, we started collecting waste in the city and suburbs, created our own network of collection points, and established the sale of extracted resources. Today, 175 people work at the enterprise, and more than 40 units of equipment are involved, which have been half renewed recently.

The biomech plant is indeed a good example of how waste collection and processing can be effectively organized in a single city. In Novopolotsk, more than 2,000 containers for collecting paper, glass, and plastic have been installed. Every month, up to 200 tons of paper, 100-150 tons of glass, and up to 40 tons of polymers are processed, which is just enough for the full capacity of the enterprise.

From all the household waste brought in, bulky waste is first manually rejected, then it is loaded into

a special bunker storage, where for six days, drying, waste moves to a conveyor with a drum screen – this is how fine fractions are sorted. Only then do workers carefully sort the remainder, extracting the most valuable. Plastic is even selected by color. Everything unnecessary is placed in a bunker storage for subsequent biochemical neutralization and landfill disposal.

According to Sergey Semyonchyov, thanks to the meticulous, primarily manual work of employees, the biomechanical plant is one of the few similar enterprises in the republic where the highest percentage of secondary material resources is recovered. It is profitable to work with waste paper (the highest recovery rate), plastic containers, and glass. Paper is pressed, glass and polymers are sorted and sell well to domestic processing enterprises, as well as to Russia and Lithuania.

— Of course, the future lies in optical waste sorting, but for now, it is too great a luxury, — says Sergey Olegovich. – Despite all the mechanization, manual labor dominates, and energy costs are still considerable. Therefore, many types of waste processing are unprofitable and, as all over the world, require state subsidies. Although much also depends on the level of relevant utility tariffs, which have become higher in recent years, minimizing our losses. Waste post-sorting is the most profitable. That is, the more people bother to sort their waste into appropriate containers, the lower the costs for its processing and disposal.

The head of the region, Nikolai Sherstnev, also emphasized this during a recent meeting of the regional executive committee. It is time to be truly civilized people, to treat nature and its resources with care, to profit from waste thanks to the simple actions of each of us – separate waste collection. The production, like the one in Novopolotsk, will take care of the rest.

Alexander KUTYNKO, photos by the author. "Vitebskiye Vesti".