Solid waste generation in the Transcarpathian mountain villages is today the most significant environmental and socio-economic problem for the community. With the advent of plastic packaging over the last 20 years, a significant amount of waste from polymeric materials that have not been disposed of properly by the population has accumulated in villages. The disappearance of glass blowers at glass sales points also increased the amount of garbage in the village. The situation is complicated because the proximity of the PZF territories do not allow the creation of official garbage dumps. As a result, large amounts of garbage are accumulated in these villages, with no proper disposal.
However, an analysis of the morphology of the garbage that accumulates in the mountain villages shows that common household garbage in the village is plastic packaging and glass, as well as packaging materials – plastic films and cardboard. Food waste and other organics are disposed of on the farm. Other types of garbage are less common. Therefore, almost 80-85% of the trash can be disposed of. Today in Ukraine, glass and plastic waste are regarded as an important raw material for production. For example, a ton of PET bottles costs from 1.5 to 2.0 thousand UAH and glass – 0.4-0.5 thousand UAH. The introduction of separate collection practices for these types of MSW would allow the collection of clean packaging waste (the cost is much higher than that collected from landfills), thus freeing the village from garbage and thus creating a stable revenue stream for the local budget.
Project area: Villages of Abranka and Verkhnyaya Vorota of Volovets district of Transcarpathia
Purpose of the project: To solve the problem of clogging the territories of the villages of Verkhnyaya Vorota and Abranko Volovets district of Zakarpattia region with solid household waste by organizing a system of separate collection of the main components of solid waste – glass, PET bottles and tin cans.
Activities:
1) To arrange separate collection of the main garbage (plastic and glass) in the villages of Abranka and Verkhnyaya Vorota through the production and installation of containers in the villages and purchase of a hydraulic press for pressing the collected recyclables;
2) Eliminate natural landfills within the villages by volunteer groups of villagers;
3) To carry out an educational and information campaign for the formation of a qualitatively new stereotype of MSW behavior among the residents of the villages of Abranka and the Upper Gate. To do this, there will be an introduction to the educational process of the author’s school program “Alphabet of solid waste management” by the same educational and methodical manual and to distribute to preschoolers the coloring book, “How Vseznayko taught Neznayko to sort garbage”;
4) Create a new revenue item in the local budget by selling the collected raw material.
Partners of the project: NIKO / CF “Krona”, Foundation for Promotion of Local Self-Government in Ukraine, Abran Village Council, Verkhnivoritsk Village Council.
Efficiency monitoring: A separate garbage collection system implemented in the villages of Abranka and Verkhnyaya Vorota of the Volovets district of Transcarpathia has been successfully operating and improving so far. The villages got rid of the problems of natural landfills, the clogging of the Latorica and Abranka rivers, and the entire territory of the villages was covered with containers for separate collection of solid waste.
Video of the installation of special waste containers in the villages of Abranka and Verkhnyaya Vorota in 2013 can be found here.
Also, see the story of a successful multi-year garbage sorting experience in the village of Verkhnyaya Vorota (2019).
