Khmelnytskiy region will embody the European model of waste management

On August 2, 2022, a working meeting was held between the head of Khmelnytskyi RMA (Regional Military Administration) Serhii Gamalii, his deputy Volodymyr Bilyk and representatives of relevant structural units with Oleg Botha, director of the Center LTD Company and Christian Cherner, head of the private enterprise “Gigajoule”.

The company “Center LTD” has extensive experience in designing solid waste landfills, their reconstruction and reclamation. The company aims to turn landfills into safe facilities, reduce the risk of environmental pollution, emergency situations and ensure the sustainable development of community areas. At the same time, “Gigajoule” PE has extensive experience in the field of collection and disposal of safe and hazardous waste, as well as recovery of sorted waste, and together with the Company “Center LTD” has started the implementation of a number of waste management projects in Ukraine.

Cooperation with representatives of Khmelnytskyi RMA began back in 2021, as part of which a series of meetings between company representatives and specialists of united territorial communities of the region took place, during which they discussed the experience of organizing work with household waste on the example of Austria.

“Although now our state is faced with a huge number of problems in the conditions of a full-scale war, the accumulation of household waste remains one of the biggest threats to environmental security. The volumes of waste generation are constantly increasing, the areas of unauthorized landfills are expanding significantly, and solid waste landfills in many settlements, including Khmelnytskyi, have long exhausted their resources. Therefore, the issue of waste management in Khmelnytskyi Region is constantly in the focus of attention in the regional administration,” said a press release published on the website of Khmelnytskyi Regional Government.

“Despite the difficult military conditions of today, we as the leadership of the region face a number of important issues that require a serious approach to their solution. Our industry and agriculture continue to work, a huge amount of household waste is generated every day, so we cannot ignore the problem of their processing, even in war conditions, – said Serhii Gamalii during the meeting. – I note that the other day the government supported a draft law that includes household waste management facilities in the list of vital services, the violation of which will lead to negative consequences for the national security of Ukraine. Therefore, we are convinced that the implementation of the European model of waste management is one of the priority tasks for the regional administration.”

The official said that over the past two years, the Department of Natural Resources and Ecology has been working on the project of the Regional Waste Management Plan in Khmelnytskyi Region until 2030. Currently, it has been sent to the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Regions for approval.

Mr. Christian Cherner spoke in more detail about the experience of implementing the latest waste processing technologies in Austria. According to him, Ukraine, as a true representative of European society, deserves that such important developments in the field of environmental safety become widely used.

“The path taken by Austria and the results they managed to achieve in the field of waste management are also real for Ukraine, if we approach this systematically, it will have an excellent effect not only for the environment and people’s health, but also for the country’s economy”, – Oleg Bota noted during the meeting.

Further, during the meeting, its participants outlined further prospects for cooperation and key areas of work for the implementation of world-leading practices in processing and disposal of waste in Khmelnytskyi Region.

Based on materials from the Khmelnytskyi RMA website.