Prospects for the transition of the municipal solid waste management industry to a circular economy

Abstract

The municipal solid waste management reform plays a significant role in improvement of the country's ecology and contributes greatly to the country's economics by recycling waste and recovering recycled resources. The most important condition of the implementation of the reform is separated collection of the waste and the opportunity to recycle all the suitable waste. The author presents a list of basic legal acts which regulate the municipal solid waste management process and points out provisions related to the requirements and conditions for separate collection of waste. The study conducted proves that it is advisable for the population of the country to fulfil the conditions for the separate collection of municipal solid waste. The relevance of the study is backed by the data on the existing landfill areas in Russia and Moscow, their annual growth rate, and unfavorable situation regarding the collection of municipal solid waste in the regions of Russia. This includes large volumes of solid household waste produced and an extremely insignificant share of recyclable solid municipal waste in it in relation to its total volumes. The author gives recommendations on how to improve the municipal solid waste management which will make it possible to recycle the suitable waste, bring it back into the country's economy and, thus, move towards the circular economy.