Russia’s north-west flooded with toxic wastes

Russia’s North-western district is rated third concerning amount of toxic wastes it produces, head of the ecological expertise and environmental quality norms department with Russia’s Ministry of Natural Resources Amirkhan Amirkhanov says.

According to the department’s data, 15% of the whole amount of toxic wastes emitted in Russia fall on the North-western and Ural federal districts, 16% - on the Volga district. The greatest amount of toxic wastes, about 30%, is produced in the Siberian federal district. In Amirkhanov’s words, toxic waste production is steadily increasing: the amount made up 67,5 million tons in 1993, however, the figure was terrible in 2001 – 139 million tons of toxic wastes.

Annual production of toxic wastes in Russia makes up about 3,4 billion tons; 2,6 billion of the total amount are industrial wastes, 700 million tons are liquid wastes of poultry farming and cattle breeding, 30 million tons are fall-out of sewage disposal plants.

Amirkhan Amirkhanov says that solid domestic wastes, utilization of which gives rise to unfavorable criticism of the population, is rather insignificant, 35-40 million tons per year. It is added that problem of wastes can be settled by minimization of waste production and increase of waste recycling.

Larissa Rodionova PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Maria Gousseva

Read the original in Russian: http://www.pravda.ru/north-west/2002/07/12/44057.html

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