Since the beginning of the year, 162,000 tonnes of rubbish have been collected in Astana and taken to landfills. Authorised bodies have identified illegal dumping sites on 221 plots.
According to the press service of the city akimat, in the Almaty district 115 such sites were cleared and around 55,000 tonnes of rubbish were removed.
In the Baikonyr district 10 sites were cleared, with around 8,000 tonnes of rubbish removed. In the Yesil district 18 points were eliminated, from which approximately 20,000 tonnes of rubbish were taken away.
In the Saryarka district 39 spontaneous dumps were identified, from which around 38,000 tonnes of rubbish were removed. From the 39 cleared points in the Nura district, 40,000 tonnes of rubbish were taken away.
At the same time, it is reported that a temporary site has been designated in Astana next to the city's municipal solid waste landfill for storing rubbish from illegal dumps, located at 64 Alash Highway.
Furthermore, the city monitoring and rapid response centre, IKomek, is identifying instances of waste being removed from construction sites and dumped in unauthorised places.
Since the start of the year, 9,000 offenders have been fined more than 136 million tenge for littering public spaces. For the illegal dumping of rubbish, 161 truck drivers were brought to administrative responsibility, with fines totalling more than 5.2 million tenge.
Earlier, it was reported that in Zhanaozen, overcharging for waste collection services was uncovered. The tariff for city residents was 433.46 tenge, of which 87.87 tenge was charged for waste sorting. However, since November 2023, no waste sorting has been carried out in the city. Consequently, more than 152,000 consumers, including 1,556 enterprises, overpaid for services by 117 million tenge.
In early October, eco-activists in Balkhash demanded harsher penalties for those who dump rubbish in unauthorised places. According to them, local residents and organisations unwilling to pay for landfill disposal are littering the city's outskirts.
For example, on the outskirts of Balkhash, they discovered plastic seating previously used at the stadium. It belonged to the city's sports department. The contractor responsible for replacing them was found and held accountable.
In March, Senator Zakirzhan Kuziev called the information from the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources regarding waste sorting in Kazakhstan "fabricated on paper". He also criticised the Ministry of Ecology and the akimats for preferring to create huge landfill sites instead of processing waste.