History of Cleanliness: Part 2. Current State

Nowadays, Moscow is actively developing and improving its waste management system. Since 2020, the capital has been implementing a program for separate accumulation of solid domestic waste. For convenience, a two-container system has been chosen. Near residential buildings, social facilities, commercial organizations, containers with markings of two colors are installed. In those with a blue label, one can put the garbage suitable for recycling: glass, plastic, paper and metal. The gray ones are for mixed and contaminated waste: food waste, personal care products, and food containers.

The contents of the bins are sent to sorting plants, where, with the help of automatic separators under the supervision of specialists, recyclable materials are separated into components and then transferred for recycling.

Citizens participate in the separate waste collection program voluntarily. Every year more and more Moscow residents support this initiative. In 2023, they sent over 1,6 million tons of recyclable materials for processing, while before the program started only 450 thousand tons had gone there annually. Thus, the chosen strategy of separate garbage collection shows its efficiency and demand from residents of Moscow.

Proper operation of the sewerage system is of great importance. Now it is a whole network of pipelines, channels and collectors with the length of 9,5 thousand kilometers. Part of domestic and industrial wastewater goes to the Kuryanovsky treatment facilities, the other part - to Luberetsky. Like the Kuryanovsky treatment facilities, it is one of the largest environmental protection complexes in Europe.

Today, the capital’s aeration stations operate according to a unified scheme of wastewater treatment in several stages. The first one is mechanical. First, water is filtered through special grids, then passed through sand traps, where mineral impurities are captured. Then the water is sedimented. At the second stage, biological purification takes place. The water is moved to tanks called aerotanks. There, sludge containing bacteria is added and oxygenated. As a result, organic matter, including nitrogen and phosphorus compounds, is removed from the water. In the final step, the water is once again sedimented for nine hours to remove the sludge. The liquid is then filtered through fine sieves and disinfected with ultraviolet light. After passing through all stages of purification, the water flows into the Pekhorka River and the Moskva River through a diversion channel.

The precipitation that is generated in the process of wastewater treatment at the Kuryanovsky and Lyuberetsky treatment facilities is also beneficial. It is used for mini-thermal power plants. These small thermal power plants with a capacity of 10 megawatts were built in 2009 at the Kuryanovsky and in 2013 at the Lyubertsy treatment facilities. Now they provide more than 50 percent of the electricity needs of the aeration facilities.

The capital treats water bodies - both natural and artificial - with special attention and care. The condition of rivers, lakes and ponds is monitored by specialists of the state unitary enterprise “Mosvodostok”. They clean them from silt, strengthen shorelines, repair spillway structures, and also create a self-cleaning ecosystem of water bodies by forming bioplato zones with aquatic plants. The water area of the Moskva River and the navigable part of the Yauza River is taken care of by the municipal fleet of Mosvodostok. This is a unique service within the municipal economy complex. It includes tugboats, boats, floating cranes, garbage collectors and other vessels. During the navigation season, they daily collect garbage from the water surface, eliminate pollution, remove sludge from the bottom of rivers.

The capital city uses various methods of waste management. This enables to successfully solve problems related to waste disposal. In addition, more and more residents of the city are becoming familiar with separate waste collection and environmental protection. This has a positive impact on the quality of life in the metropolis, on its ecology and the health of citizens.

The source: https://www.mos.ru/

The photo: E. Samarina. Mos.ru

25.12.2024

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