May 17, 2021

Waste Not, Unless You Want to Support Russia's Disposal Services


Waste Not, Unless You Want to Support Russia's Disposal Services
What rubbish! Photo by Muhammad Numan on Unsplash

On behalf of the Deputy Prime Minister Victoria Abramchenko, Russian Environmental Operator has allocated about R1.1 billion (approximately $14,844,240) to modernize the Russian Federation’s garbage equipment by the end of 2021.

Shedders, garbage pressers, screens, bag breakers… all of these require moolah. Especially if, as in Russia, these technologies are privately owned. The government justified the expenditures to remunerate companies for leasing their equipment for sorting and recycling waste.

The budget, however, will compensate for only 25 percent of the debt owed to these companies. Other subsidies will also be granted to invest in new garbage containers, trucks, and recycling kiosks. The move is in part a bid to transition to more environmentally friendly waste disposal methods, particularly in the Russian provinces.

Denis Butsayev, head of Russian Environmental Operator, announced that the project will culminate in an integrated waste system, with 100 percent of garbage sorted and a 50 percent reduction of the waste that is sent to landfills.

You Might Also Like

Talking Trash
  • July 01, 2019

Talking Trash

For several months, there has been a steady trickle of news reports from Shiyes, a nondescript railway station nestled amid forests and lakes not far from Syktyvkar, that sound as if they are coming from a war zone.
Saving Baikal
  • September 01, 2004

Saving Baikal

You would think it would be easy being the deepest, cleanest, most ecologically diverse lake in the world. But Baikal has had a rough go of it this past century. We report on how a handful of non-profits is working to reverse civilization's assault.
Restoring the Future
  • January 01, 2021

Restoring the Future

A determined artist, photographer, and activist takes on the restoration of some wooden homes in a village just outside of Samara. In the process, she learns much about angle grinders, her fellow Russians, and, of course, herself.
Publishing Green
  • January 01, 1990

Publishing Green

RIS Publications, the publisher of Russian Life magazine, was founded in 1990 on the principle that paying attention to international issues matters. While U.S.-Russian relations and the history and society of the world’s largest country are important, there is no larger international issue than the health of this planet. 
Mud-slinging and Money-making
  • January 24, 2019

Mud-slinging and Money-making

This week got a little shifty, with trash sent in packages, a possible tax evasion scheme, and a game retelling a contentious moment in recent Russian history.
Lights, camera, shovels!
  • April 27, 2019

Lights, camera, shovels!

Russian officials participating in the subbotnik spring cleaning take a page from Lenin's book (the one about propaganda).
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

A Taste of Chekhov

A Taste of Chekhov

This compact volume is an introduction to the works of Chekhov the master storyteller, via nine stories spanning the last twenty years of his life.
Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod is a mid-sized provincial city that exists only in Russian metaphorical space. It has its roots in Gogol, and Ilf and Petrov, and is a place far from Moscow, but close to Russian hearts. It is a place of mystery and normality, of provincial innocence and Black Earth wisdom. Strange, inexplicable things happen in Stargorod. So do good things. And bad things. A lot like life everywhere, one might say. Only with a heavy dose of vodka, longing and mystery.
93 Untranslatable Russian Words

93 Untranslatable Russian Words

Every language has concepts, ideas, words and idioms that are nearly impossible to translate into another language. This book looks at nearly 100 such Russian words and offers paths to their understanding and translation by way of examples from literature and everyday life. Difficult to translate words and concepts are introduced with dictionary definitions, then elucidated with citations from literature, speech and prose, helping the student of Russian comprehend the word/concept in context.
Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

This is the work that made Chekhov, launching his career as a writer and playwright of national and international renown. Retranslated and updated, this new bilingual edition is a super way to improve your Russian.
Life Stories: Original Fiction By Russian Authors

Life Stories: Original Fiction By Russian Authors

The Life Stories collection is a nice introduction to contemporary Russian fiction: many of the 19 authors featured here have won major Russian literary prizes and/or become bestsellers. These are life-affirming stories of love, family, hope, rebirth, mystery and imagination, masterfully translated by some of the best Russian-English translators working today. The selections reassert the power of Russian literature to affect readers of all cultures in profound and lasting ways. Best of all, 100% of the profits from the sale of this book are going to benefit Russian hospice—not-for-profit care for fellow human beings who are nearing the end of their own life stories.
Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

In this comprehensive, quixotic and addictive book, Edwin Trommelen explores all facets of the Russian obsession with vodka. Peering chiefly through the lenses of history and literature, Trommelen offers up an appropriately complex, rich and bittersweet portrait, based on great respect for Russian culture.
The Moscow Eccentric

The Moscow Eccentric

Advance reviewers are calling this new translation "a coup" and "a remarkable achievement." This rediscovered gem of a novel by one of Russia's finest writers explores some of the thorniest issues of the early twentieth century.
Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Bilingual series of short, lesser known, but highly significant works that show the traditional view of Dostoyevsky as a dour, intense, philosophical writer to be unnecessarily one-sided. 
Chekhov Bilingual

Chekhov Bilingual

Some of Chekhov's most beloved stories, with English and accented Russian on facing pages throughout. 

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955