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Several regions in Russia have completed the cleanup of large, old landfills located near residential areas. The sites were eliminated in St. Petersburg, Kaluga and Kirov regions, and Mordovia as part of the federal project "Clean Country" within the national project "Ecology." This was reported by the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources.
"In Zelenogorsk (part of St. Petersburg), a 1.2-hectare landfill had existed since the middle of the last century. The city is located on the shores of the Gulf of Finland and attracts tourists with its sandy beaches and coniferous forests. The landfill posed a serious environmental problem: in Soviet times, more than 80 thousand cubic meters of waste were buried in a small area. Specialists removed the garbage, reclaimed the site and planted it with coniferous trees," the message on the department's website says.
In the city of Yukhnov, Kaluga region, the landfill had been operating since 1950 and was closed in 2020. 73 thousand cubic meters of waste had accumulated on its territory. Six thousand people live near the landfill. The site was also liquidated, and currently, another site is being reclaimed in the region.
In the Kirov region, household waste had been dumped at a landfill in the city of Omutninsk for almost half a century; there were no waterproofing or drainage systems. But even after the landfill was closed in 2001, its operation continued.According to the Ministry of Natural Resources, the total volume of waste at the Omutninsk landfill was 81.3 thousand cubic meters.
"A contaminated area of 3.5 hectares was cleared of garbage and reclaimed. The positive changes affected 22 thousand people. In total, as a result of the implementation of the federal project "Clean Country" in the Kirov region, 6 unauthorized landfills will be cleaned up, work is still underway at another site," said Murad Kerimov, Deputy Minister.
The liquidation of two more landfills is ongoing in Mordovia. Work has been completed at one site. In the city of Temnikov, 73 thousand cubic meters of waste were neutralized.
"All sites were accepted after checking the work and analyzing the samples taken, confirming that the land plots are environmentally safe. Now, instead of waste dumps, you can see neat green hills that will no longer harm either people or nature," Kerimov noted.
As noted in the Ministry of Natural Resources, the continuation of the federal project "Clean Country" from 2025 will be the "General Cleaning". In the regions, they plan to liquidate the most dangerous landfills.
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