The landfill near Borodyanka, Ukraine

Problems

• The problem of landfills, or more simply, what to do with tens or hundreds of millions of tons of garbage harmful to humans, is perhaps the most pressing environmental problem in Ukraine. Kyiv region suffers from this disaster, perhaps, the most, because the multi-million capital takes its garbage here. According to environmentalists, Kyiv produces about 12 million tons of garbage annually. And this is about 10 - 12% of all garbage in Ukraine. Unfortunately, there are so few Ukrainian enterprises capable of recycling garbage that it can be assumed that they do not exist at all. Therefore, in general, the situation can be described as follows: the city takes its garbage to the village, and the village has to live with all this.

• Landfill near Borodyanka

  There is a landfill near Borodyanka, it was established in 1981 and now covers an area of almost 13 hectares. In 2015, an investor became interested in this landfill and promised to build a "European level" waste processing plant. But this idea remained on paper. By the way, this landfill was established in violation of the current legislation, which was recognized by the Supreme Court. This case came to court at the insistence of the local community.
  
  On August 28, 2018, the Borodyanka District State Administration held a regular meeting on the operation of the solid waste landfill near Borodyanka. Huge piles of garbage are kept by the company "Utilservice". The representative of the company says that they comply with sanitary standards. He also assures that they do everything possible to reduce the import of garbage to the landfill. However, for representatives of the StateGeoCadastre, the information about the existence of the company "Utilservice" is new, because no documents have been submitted to the state service. Meanwhile, the landfill continues to drown in mountains of garbage. Not only do people suffer, but also the surrounding forests. In just one month, 9 cases of fire were recorded there. 
  
  The "war" against the landfill in the Borodyansky district has been going on for a long time. Huge piles of garbage on 13 hectares have been poisoning the lives of residents of the village of Nove Zalissia for many years. Recently, an effective decision on the further activities of the landfill was finally made in Nove Zalissya, based on the problems of the village. In particular, projects for the repair of water pipelines and valves, projects for the repair of two wells, and the arrangement of one new well were ordered.

• The problem of waste recycling and utilization

  Kyiv region today does not recycle waste, everything is only at the initial stage. There are point examples. If you go to some small town in the region, for example, Irpin or Bucha, you can find containers for separate waste collection. There are also such examples in Borodyanka. But all this is at the level of private initiatives. Maybe up to 5% of the total amount of waste generated is recycled. The rest goes to landfills.
  Today, more than 90% of all garbage is polymers that do not decompose. This is hazardous waste, hazardous waste, batteries and lamps, and medical waste, which are not properly processed.
  
  In addition, most landfills do not have even basic isolation equipment or filtration facilities that would not allow harmful substances resulting from the decay of waste to enter the environment. That is, landfills in the Kyiv region are just piles of garbage in the middle of the field. And all the harmful substances that are formed get into the soil. This is dangerous for human health.