An Economy of Unlimited Resources
Around 70 million tonnes of household waste are produced in Russia every year, and this figure is continuing to grow. Today, only 7% of household waste is sorted and recycled, with the remaining 93% going to landfills, often without any preliminary sorting. As well as damaging the environment and people’s health, the prevailing practice of disposing household waste at landfill sites also represents a waste of resources that could have otherwise been recycled. It is therefore imperative to increase processing and recycling of household waste as much as possible in the interests of sustainable development. The creation of a comprehensive waste processing system in Russia could lead to landfill sites becoming a thing of the past, as is the case in several developed countries. How can the principle of ‘zero waste to landfills’ be made into a reality and what is its role in the introduction of the zero waste concept as part of Russia’s wider transition to a circular economy? How many factories specializing in energy recovery from municipal solid waste should Russia build in order to solve the problem of landfill sites and dumping grounds in major cities?