Recently it has been 5 years since the creation of the Russian Environmental Operator…

Recently it has been 5 years since the creation of the Russian Environmental Operator (PPK REO), designed to lead waste reform in Russia. The results of the first five-year period of REO’s work are disappointing – the garbage crisis in the country is worsening, landfills are overflowing, the country is plunging into waste, recycling is stalling, garbage reform is stalling, and the head of REO Denis Butsaev is also stalling.

Information has emerged that Valentina Matvienko expressed extreme dissatisfaction with Victoria Abramchenko about the speed of implementation of the garbage reform and the low efficiency of Denis Butsaev. The numbers confirm this: despite annual multi-billion dollar injections, REO targets are decreasing every year. 5 years ago, the goal was set to commission 29.4 million tons of waste processing capacity and 18.5 million tons of waste disposal capacity by 2023 (47.9 million tons in total). After 2 years, in 2021, both indicators were combined and replaced with the figure 8.87 million tons, i.e. reduced by 5.5 times! In addition, the indicators were supplemented with the word “placement”, i.e. REOs were allowed to report on newly commissioned landfills, in other words landfills, instead of processing plants.

At the end of 2023, even the figure lowered by 5.5 times could not be met – and it was reduced by more than 2 times, to 4 million tons, and the implementation deadline was postponed until 2025. Probably, if nothing changes, then in another couple of years the target indicators of the PPC REO will drop to 0 and the garbage reform will be quietly swept under the rug.

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Why the authorities put up with the extreme ineffectiveness of REO and Butsaev is a big question, and an even bigger question is whether it will continue to put up with this.