Kazan City Duma to ask State Council to oblige all to separate waste following the example of Moscow

The glass “line” from Kazan to Zelenodolsk

Plastic bottles, brought for recycling by Kazan citizens last year, can be strewn with an even layer of the entire surface of the Bulak River, Black Lake and Nizhny Kaban Lake. Conscious citizens brought 1,200 tonnes of PET bottles for recycling, and 2,800 tonnes of paper — in comparable volumes, people helped to save 47,000 trees.

“Our water reservoirs have remained pure, including thanks to that we did not throw out this plastic in water but brought for recycling. In Kazan, 300 tonnes of glass was collected and removed. If you put bottles of this glass in a row, the line would exceed the distance from Kazan to Zelenodolsk and will be 52 kilometres,” Iskander Giniyatullin, the deputy head of the Executive Committee, opened the meeting of the United Russia faction in the Kazan City Duma with entertaining statistics.

The main question was designated as “the introduction of the separate collection of municipal solid wastes”. The deputy reminded that the first sure steps to launch the reform Kazan made in 2018 when in the framework of the pilot project all container sites of the Aviastroitelny district were equipped with containers for separate waste collection on the simple dual principle: recyclable and non-recyclable fractions.

Already in early 2019, the city adopted a roadmap for the widespread separate waste collection. Today, according to Giniyatullin, 80% of the housing stock of Kazan is equipped with containers for separate collection, 52 new container sites have been built, 17 more are going to appear by the end of the year. All budgetary institutions of Kazan have switched to separate collection of waste paper, plastic and other waste, the issue is being considered especially carefully in schools, the city has provided about 40 land plots for the placement of pavilions for the reception of recyclables, where residents can bring various plastics, polyethylene, cardboard, paper, glass, aluminum and get cash for it. All this is a systematic movement towards bringing the volume of garbage processing to 60%, the deputy said.

“An important incentive for any grandiose undertaking is money”

“What can we do to help in such a grandiose matter besides creating infrastructure, campaigning, and educational work? In our time, an important incentive for any grandiose undertaking is money. It is no secret that fee size for SMW removal for residents of the city and the republic with the transition to a new calculation procedure has increased in general,” said Iskander Giniyatullin. “It is a difficult situation in budgetary institutions, where the cost of services for SMW removal has risen several times due to changes in calculation…”

The deputy sees the solution of the issue in the transition to payment for waste removal by the actual volume, which, according to preliminary estimates, will be less than the norm when introducing the separate waste collection. The legislator provided for this possibility by stipulating two conditions for changing the order of payments: the presence of the order of application of separate collection approved in the region and the actual implementation of this collection.

“If we have already done a lot for the second condition, then there is no approved order in our republic. Moscow and Moscow Oblast have adopted such regulations, where they signed the transition to separate waste collection from January 1, 2020. Dear deputies, I am appealing to you to consider the possibility of developing and adopting such a regulatory act defining the procedure for the introduction of separate waste collection, its obligation for all waste generators, the introduction of liability for non-compliance with the current legislation. I believe that the adopted document will be an important tool for solving the task set before us,” he concluded.

“The topic is the most relevant, but I have a question of a different kind... You represent and have reported today the opinion of the executive power of the city of Kazan. Are you demanding or offering to adopt a regulatory act of the government of the Republic of Tatarstan? Are you putting the question before the legislators on the adoption of the resolution by the government — the executive authority?” Deputy Chairman of the State Council Committee on Housing Policy and Infrastructure Development Kamil Sadriev, who was invited to the meeting of the faction of the Kazan City Duma, wondered at the “appeal to the wrong quarter”.

“No, I'm not asking,” Iskander Giniyatullin immediately corrected his opponent, explaining that he was rather asking the deputies of the State Council of the Republic of Tatarstan to give appropriate instruction to the Republican Cabinet of Ministers. Kamil Sadriev advised the speaker to study this issue in more detail with lawyers and noted that, in general, he considered the initiative interesting and worthy of discussion.

“We need a document that would establish the procedure for separate waste collection, which would prescribe the way to organize it, remove, take into account the accumulated waste, how to pay a fee under the current legislation for separately accumulated actually generated waste and what is the responsibility of those who violate,” explained the deputy head of the executive committee of Kazan. “The path has been trodden by Moscow and Moscow Oblast — we can take their regional documents as a basis.”

“Today we are talking about a document obliging to switch to separate waste collection — we do not have such”

The representatives of the ministry, present at the meeting, reminded that the order of municipal solid waste collection (including separate collection) in the republic has already been approved by resolution of the Cabinet of Tatarstan last December. The document suggests the possibility of dual accumulation and deeper separation in the collection of waste.

“I know that we have a resolution adopted by the Cabinet of Ministers, but the wording is the following: if you want a separate waste collection, it should be like this, and we recommend implementing it in this format. Today we are discussing a document obliging to switch to separate waste collection — we do not have such,” the initiator of innovations Iskander Giniyatullin explained his position. “We are telling that there should be not a recommendation document but administrative. It is necessary to introduce obligatoriness.”

Kamil Sadriev, the deputy chairman of the State Council Committee on Housing Policy and Infrastructure Development, proposed the creation of a special working group that could engage in the professional study of the issue, carefully analyzing both regional and federal legislation. He was supported by the deputy head of the municipality of Kazan Lyudmila Andreeva, recognizing that the United Russia faction of the Kazan City Duma has no authority to convene a working group and to develop the document, especially its adoption.

“Let's turn to the United Russia faction of the State Council of the Republic of Tatarstan today. Kamil Gaynetdinovich, let's get together with the Kazan City Duma faction and the United Russia faction of the State Council of the Republic of Tatarstan, create a single working group and work in detail on the basis of the appeals of the State Council deputies, develop specific proposals so that they are actually adopted. It is a pity that Yury Zimelevich Kamaltynov is absent here today, we wanted to tell him about it today. And I am asking you to convey this to Farid Khayrullovich Mukhametshin, and to Yury Zimelevich. Let's work together — we have developments, the executive committee, the ministries, the Cabinet, the State Council also do, let's combine all this into one document and submit it to the government. Help us,” Lyudmila Andreeva concluded, closing the meeting of the fraction.