If there are penalties in civil countries for throwing garbage around,
you can not only throw a lot of garbage in the streets here, but also,
you can throw the dusty reconstruction remainances not far from the
porches. In European countries these penalties not only provide
cleanness, but also make it easier for them to scavenge, because
garbage can be used for business purposes too. In spite of many other
countries, in our country there are no factories for processing garbage
and dangerous garbage waste.
Since the above mentioned mechanisms don’t exist, in our country the
garbage is taken away and burnt without making any separation of the
dangerous part from its non-dangerous part. In developed countries
garbage processing provides good income for business, because they use
the garbage for making paper, glass and other useful materials.
The first phase for waste processing is collecting the waste. Waste is
scavenged by cars foreseen for doing that. Currently in Armenia, waste
is collected without separating, and no special packs are used for
scavenging. That garbage is especially collected in packs intended for
food. This can usually be seen in countries, which are not developed
enough, where they couldn’t apply systems and technologies for garbage
processing and for getting secondary raw materials. The experts of this
field say, that not separating the garbage and collecting it in this
way is not only dangerous from the ecological point of view, but also
makes it difficult to prevent danger. According to experts, it is not
so expensive to organize separation of garbage and collecting them
separated. For example, Russian big company “Ctanko” is one of the
leading companies in garbage separating, whose production line makes
garbage separating, initial processing, pressing and packing. And
“Ekomtex” company has separating production lines with 20-20.000 tones
capacity, which operate in various cities in Russia. In Armenia waste
is just burnt, while this method is rejected in many developed
countries in the world, because this has to do with a big ecological
and sanitary risk. Burning doesn’t make it safe any more, doesn’t make
it free from danger, because after burning, the 30 % of that garbage
has to be digged in the ground.
Only dust comes out of the Armenian garbage
According to the head of Dangerous Materials and Junk Management
department of the Ministry of Environment Protection Anahit Alexanyan,
as a result of garbage burning very dangerous materials come out, which
stay for about 30 years. The garbage in Armenia cannot be processed,
because it must be cleaned and annihilated. “ Waste processing of
products is very dangerous and not profitable. Even in European
countries this money is provided by their governments. The annihilation
of 1 ton of dangerous waste costs about $800-1500 USD. Even the
companies in developed countries, which have huge production, cannot
handle the job of taking out materials found in garbage. Only household
rubbish can be profitable. This needs to be invested in the first stage
too. Besides that, in order to get profit, 50-60 % of the garbage
should be organic, which can not be seen here”,- says Mrs Alexanyan.
Mrs Alexanyan notes, that most of Armenia’s waste is construction
waste. Garbage also shows the living standards of that country, and the
more a country’s living standard is good, the more there is the organic
part in the garbage of that country. The remainances of food provide
fertilizers and composts, which may be profitable. Currently only dust
comes out of Armenia’s garbage. Moreover, garbage is burnt in open
conditions and in low temperature and as a result, according to Mrs
Alexanyan, dioxide other things come out, which are very dangerous. As
for burning the waste-bins in the streets, Mrs Alexanyan notes, that
though garbage is taken away by the municipalities, the environmental
protection inspection controls this process and makes sure not to let
anyone burn the garbage in waste-bins, because in case of burning these
dangerous materals come out in the air.
The construction garbage is the problem of people
If the municipalities organize to take the household rubbish away, the
people are the ones responsible for the construction garbage. The head
of Yerevan construction board Frunzik Basentsyan recently announced,
that garbage-collectors don’t get any money for scavenging construction
waste. He called on the people to take care of the city, he asked
everyone to pay the people responsible for taking the construction
waste away, but not to throw the garbage somewhere at night. Whatever.
According to sources, usage waste covers 97,3 % and the production
waste covers 2,7 %. At the same time, some economies escape from giving
correct information about the waste in order not to make the payment
for it. In Yerevan one person throws 6,9 kg garbage and one
organization throws about 20,8 tons of waste a year. About 90-92 % of
the garbage of Yerevan is taken to Noubarashen city garbage junkyard,
but the people don’t take into account how dangerous the garbage is,
which is a serious violation of environmental protection norms.
Garbage must have a passport
State “Garbage examination centre” NGO was founded by the decision of
the government, and the authorised manager is the Environmental
Protection Ministry of RA. The purpose of its activities is to collect
and analyse information about garbage collection, use, processing
technologies and as well as to conduct researches for waste production
and the junkyards. According to the head of Environmental Protection
Ministry’s Dangerous Materials and Waste department A.Alexanyan, the
activities of the “garbage examination centre” carries out its actions
in accordance with “the law about waste”. According to this law,
accountancy of both household and production garbage must be made. In
other words, a cadastre for waste will be founded and all the waste
must have a passport. This is a document stating the physico-chemical
characteristics, designation about which factory the waste came out
from, in which technological stage it is and what kind of danger
classification it has, because waste is classified in 4 ways according
to the level of its danger, and according to how the payments are made
for it. Besides that, there should also be also a register for
junkyards, i.e. information about junkyards, thus it will be clear
which ones are the authorized junkyards, how many junkyards there are,
how much garbage there is, how dangerous that garbage is, etc. “All
this is provided “by the law about waste”, and we must work it out with
the help of legislation”,- says Mrs Alexanyan.