The waste processing plant in Novopolotsk will begin its operation in 2009

November 11, Minsk /Elena Demeshkevich - BELTA/. A waste processing plant in Novopolotsk will start its operation in 2009, Irina Safronova, consultant of the utilities and energy department of the Ministry of Housing and Communal Services, told reporters today, a BELTA correspondent reports. Similar enterprises are also being built in Gomel, Mogilev and Brest. Construction of waste processing plants is planned in Minsk, Grodno, Lida, Vitebsk, Borisov, Bobruisk and Baranovichi. In the housing and communal services organizations of Belarus, the volume of collection and procurement of secondary material resources (SMR) increases by 30-50% on average per year. "In August-September 2009, we collected and handed over almost 45 thousand tons of secondary raw materials and practically reached last year's figures: in 2008, we managed to collect 49 thousand tons," Irina Safronova noted. In her opinion, this year's results could have been even higher if not for the decrease in prices for SMR, at which processing enterprises accept secondary raw materials. "Only prices for cullet remained the same. For other traditional secondary material resources that we collect and procure (film, polymers, and others), prices have decreased very noticeably," the representative of the Ministry of Housing and Communal Services reported. The volume of solid municipal waste generation is increasing every year. In 2008, the volume of waste taken for disposal was 17 million cubic meters nationwide. In 2007, this figure was slightly more than 16 million cubic meters, and in 2005 - 15.5 million cubic meters. Annually, the volume of solid municipal waste generation increases by 1 million cubic meters. According to Irina Safronova, the Ministry of Housing and Communal Services is taking the necessary measures to reduce the volume of waste taken for disposal, in particular, by building sorting and processing facilities. In 2006, small sorting and post-sorting stations for separately collected municipal waste and post-sorting of secondary material resources were widely introduced. "Unfortunately, we have few large stations where about 20 thousand tons of waste are sorted annually - only five," the specialist clarified. -0-