{"id":449168,"date":"2021-01-31T15:44:47","date_gmt":"2021-01-31T15:44:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.moldova.org\/en\/?p=449168"},"modified":"2021-01-31T16:13:26","modified_gmt":"2021-01-31T16:13:26","slug":"waste-management-in-moldova-is-the-society-ready-to-sort-and-recycle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.moldova.org\/en\/waste-management-in-moldova-is-the-society-ready-to-sort-and-recycle\/","title":{"rendered":"Waste Management in Moldova: is the society ready to sort and recycle?"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 5<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

Many say that people in Moldova don’t have the necessary knowledge or motivation to start separating their rubbish, nor have they the proper mindset to do it thoroughly. They say: “people in Moldova are not educated, authorities in Moldova don’t have budgets to sort and recycle.”<\/em><\/strong> However, when an opportunity to improve things is given, it still gets irresponsibly missed. How does this happen?<\/p>\n

While there are entire cities in Japan that conduct waste management programs, which include separating trash into 34 categories (!), as well as recycling and composting almost the entire amount of household rubbish, cities and villages in Moldova still dump their trash in landfill sites.<\/p>\n

There is only one private company located near the Moldovan capital city that has been trying, for years, to convince citizens and authorities that separating and recycling waste is not impossible to implement. Even though we are talking about a country with no infrastructure in this respect, and it does require a considerable effort and investments, it is also more ecological, healthy and can even be profitable to recycle and reuse the waste material.<\/p>\n

A problem or a solution?<\/h3>\n

On January 21, the company ABS Recycling<\/em><\/strong> – the only waste sorting station in Chisinau – published an open letter<\/a> addressed to President Maia Sandu, Mayor of Chisinau Ion Ceban, the Chisinau Municipal Council, as well as to the related ministries, stating that the company must close down its activity related to mixed municipal waste sorting.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to the company’s statement<\/a>, thanks to the existing sorting lines, 12 types of recyclable waste was sorted by 200 employees, that meaning 15% of the delivered rubbish total mass or 40% of its volume<\/strong>. Consequently, less trash arrived in Tantareni<\/strong> – the main landfill site where the rubbish from Chisinau has been disposed for decades, creating a multitude of environmental and health problems for residents.<\/p>\n

About 600 tons of waste are transported from Chisinau to the Tantareni landfill site every day.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n