Senator Zakirzhan Kuziev has described the information from the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources regarding waste sorting in Kazakhstan as "drawn up on paper".
According to media reports, he also criticised the Ministry of Ecology and the local akimats for preferring to create huge landfill sites instead of processing waste.
"Instead of the 20% claimed by the Ministry of Ecology, often drawn up on paper, only 5-6% of waste in Kazakhstan is actually sorted. The Ministry of Ecology and the akimats find it more profitable to spend billions of tenge from the budget on creating 20-hectare landfills than on building a waste sorting and processing plant, which would take up five times less space," the senator said.
According to him, only 21% of landfills meet environmental standards. He also stated that around 4.5 million tonnes of municipal waste are generated in Kazakhstan each year.
The senator believes that due to the introduction of the Environmental Code, which prohibits burying construction waste in landfills, people have started disposing of it near populated areas. Last year alone, authorities discovered more than 5,500 illegal dumps across the country.
"The largest waste sorting and processing plant in Central Asia was built in Almaty, but it is closed. Two new plants built in Aktobe and Semey, costing 5 billion tenge from the budget, are also not working," the senator noted.
To solve the problem, the senator proposes:
- banning the production of packaging that cannot be further recycled;
- introducing a waste sorting system at primary waste collection points;
- increasing fines for untimely waste removal and the creation of unauthorised dumps;
- holding landowners accountable for dumps on their land;
- considering the possibility of building robotic plants for the processing and sorting of household waste.
For context, the Akim of Astana, Zhenis Kassymbek, previously stated that the contract with the former company of Aliya Nazarbayeva, 'Clean City NC', expires this year. The contract with the waste collection company was signed about 5-6 years ago. Other companies will now be responsible for waste collection in the capital.
At the same time, it is worth noting that at the end of last year, the former president's daughter withdrew from being a founder of 'Clean City NC' in Astana.