Sustainable waste management: international experience for Ukraine regions

Waste generation in EU countries (excluding basic mineral waste), 2004-2018, million tons

Source: Eurostat. Waste statistics (2018).

The hig During 2004-2020, the rate of circular use of materials (CMU, the ratio of secondary raw materials to total material used for domestic use), which reflects the share of resources used from collected waste, increased from 8.3% to 12.8% (Fig. 1). In the short term (2014-2020), growth was lower than the annual average by 1.3%, and only in 2020 the CMU grew by 0.8%.

Figure 1. Dynamics of changes in the circular use of materials (CMU) in the EU (20042020), %. Source: Eurostat, (2021)

The hest CMU rates were observed in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy, Estonia, and the lowest in Romania, Ireland, Portugal, Bulgaria, and Cyprus (Fig. 2).

¦ 2010 ¦ 2015 ¦ 2020

Figure 2. Dynamics of changes in the geographical structure of the circular use of materials (CMU) in EUmember states (2010-2020), %. Source: Eurostat, (2021)

Unfortunately, statistics on waste disposal, which excludes the main mineral waste, have been available only since 2010 and show a slight increase. However, despite the much higher rate of recycling, the relatively low degree of circularity in the EU can be explained by two structural barriers. First, a significant part of the materials is used for the construction and maintenance of buildings, infrastructure and other goods (works, services) with a long service life and limited availability for recycling. Secondly, a significant amount of material resources is used for energy production, so the circularity rate is quite low (European Commission, 2015).

In 2018, out of 812.0 million tons of generated waste, the largest part came from waste / water (207.6 million tons), households (185.7 million tons) and Manufacturing (180.1 million tons) (see Table 1). One third of wastes, excluding basic mineral wastes, were mixed conventional wastes, including household wastes, mixed undifferentiated materials and waste sorting residues. Waste combined into “recyclable waste” (metal, glass, paper and plastic) accounted for about a quarter, combustion waste - 15%, animal and vegetable waste - 10%, chemical and medical waste - 6%, mineral waste from processing of stabilized waste - 5%. In 2016, the volume of slag and equipment was about 2%. In 2016, 48% of waste was recycled in the EU (Fig. 3).

Source: Europian Environment Agency, (2019)

Up to 25% of waste was accumulated in landfills, while the share of waste accumulated in garbage dumps decreased, recycling due to energy-saving incineration increased. The recycling rate is higher for general waste, except for basic mineral waste, than for household waste. Despite significant growth, the level of municipal waste disposal remained at 45.3% in 2018, which is due to the dominance of landfill technology for their disposal. However, there is a change in landfill disposal for combustion with energy recovery. Thus, if in 2011 34.4% of municipal waste was accumulated in landfills and 24.0% burned, and in 2018 the share of landfills was 24.4% against 27.6%.

In 2018, 7.5% of waste, excluding basic mineral waste, or 132 kg per capita, was assessed as hazardous to health or the environment.

In Ukraine, the emphasis of the implemented measures for achieving the 12^th SDG (“Ensuring of responsible consumption and production”) is made on reducing post-harvest losses in agricultural production and efficient waste management, while it should be much more wider (Antoniuk K., Antoniuk D., Mokiy A., 2020).

The importance of the first task can be explained by the priority of agricultural sector development as potentially competitive for the national economy in the medium term. But the constant increase in the load on agricultural land due to increased arable land, agricultural consumption, food prices causes negative consequences, which in the long run pose a significant threat to economic security of regions with reduced resource potential for stable agro-industrial production (Analytical report, 2018). To solve this problem, it is necessary to reduce food losses in the supply chain, the dynamics of which should be assessed using the following indicators: the share of post-harvest losses in total grain production (%); share of post-harvest losses in total production of vegetables and melons (%).

Recently, there has been a decrease in post-harvest losses in total grain production (Fig. 4), the share of which in the regions of Ukraine ranges from 0.1 to 3.4%. It seems debatable to apply a methodological approach to account for this indicator (Analytical report, 2018), as its real value is much higher, and compared to 2011 has decreased significantly. The following average annual indicators are defined as target values for the national economy: 2020 - 1.8%; 2025 - 1.0%; 2030 - 0.5%.

Figure 4. Dynamics of change in the share of post-harvest losses in total grain production, %. Source: Analytical report, 2018

In Ukraine, the problem of waste management will become increasingly important, including the consumption safety context. The tasks of reducing the volume of waste generation and increasing the volume of their processing and reuse to minimize the negative impact on the environment, increase the efficiency of production and, consequently, the safety of consumption of goods (services) remain decisive.

During 2015-2019, there is a tendency to reduce the volume of waste of hazard classes I-III, but the share of waste of class IV is growing. To some extent, the economic crisis of 2008-2009 and the military-political conflict with the Russian Federation since 2013 have significantly affected the volume of hazardous waste of I-III classes. In 2015, there was a significant decrease of 44% (to the level of 2011), caused by the occupation of certain districts and cities of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which housed a large part of the country's industrial enterprises. These trends also appeared due to the industry structural reorientation to less production waste.

At the same time, the total amount of waste in the economy is increasing (Fig. 5). In the regional dimension, the leaders are: Dnipropetrovsk region (206 million tons); Kirovohrad (35 million tons); Donetsk (20 million tons); Poltava and Zaporizhia regions (5 million tons each). This is due to the concentration of mining and processing enterprises - the main polluters, whose shares in 2011 were 75.0% and 18.0%, in 2016 -- 74.0% and 18.2%, respectively.

Figure 5. Dynamics of changes in the volume of waste generated by enterprises of all types of economic activity per unit of gross regional product (GRP) (2015-2018), kg per 1000 USD Source: Analytical report, 2018

The volume of waste disposal in the regions of Ukraine ranges from 3.8 to 67.3% of the total. In Zaporizhzhia, Poltava, Ivano-Frankivsk and Cherkasy region, the share of waste incinerated and utilized at landfills in the total amount of waste generated significantly exceeded the Ukrainian average (29%).

Significant volumes of generated waste and low values of their utilization indicators lead to an increase in the volume of accumulated waste (Table 2). A threatening situation is observed in Dnipropetrovsk region, where 10 million tons of waste are stored, in Zaporizhzhia region (7.7 million tons of waste of I-III classes), in the Sumy region (2.2 million tons of waste of I-III classes) and in Luhansk region (860.4 thousand tons of waste of I-III classes). As for the total amount of waste accumulated during operation, Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk regions are several times higher than other regions of Ukraine in terms of waste disposal per square kilometer (EEA report, 2016).

Table 2

The total amount of waste accumulated during operation, in places of utilization, per square km, in the most polluted regions of Ukraine, t