&host=www.rt.com&uri=/news/trash-moscow-recycling-infrastructure/comments/&via=1.1 205.128.88.17:80 (Footprint 4.8/FPMCP)&ua=CCBot/1.0 (+http://www.commoncrawl.org/bot.html))
Trash staring Muscovites in the face
Published: 25 October, 2010, 08:47
Edited: 26 October, 2010, 07:44
Moscow knows it lags behind many other capitals when it comes to taking out the trash. But a lack of recycling infrastructure is forcing environmental protection up the priority list.
I'm from San Francisco, where we divert almost 80% of waste from the landfill: we recycle and sell-off paper, plastic, glass, and metals. We compost food and yard waste and sell the compost to organic farms. Each building has three colored bins; blue for recyclables, black for trash, green for compost. Some buildings or businesses have many bins. One company collects everything. It's working very well for us. Everyone lowers their garbage bill by recycling and composting. Everyone wins. There are also many places where you can deposit small household hazardous waste items for free, so you never have to go far from home for this service. There is free collection of large household items like furniture or computers. Computers can be given to a special charity that fixes them and gives them away. I would think Moscow is a big enough, rich enough city for this to work.
$200 fine? That's all? How about a fine "per day" until the trash is removed and hauled to an open facility? Even the big trash haulers in Moscow will feel the pinch, the longer they ignore city warnings. Also, most of us in the USA have been interested in recycling for only a few decades. The movement started with stories like this one, plus the realization by various cities that they were running out of room in their landfills. I guess European cities started first, because they were more crowded.