Europe’s giant heading towards environmental sustainability.
REMONDIS in Russia.
REMONDIS has entered a rapidly growing business field in Russia helping to set up a well-functioning water and environmental service sector. By doing so, it is also contributing towards ensuring that the Russian economy achieves higher environmental standards, too.
Over the last few years, Russia has become the synonym for economic growth. This country, which has the largest surface area in Europe, has joined the group of economic powers. Its abundance of raw materials has, in particular, given the Russian economy the necessary push towards achieving immense growth, increased production and growing consumption. However, there is a downside to such economic development. An economic boom generates larger and more varied volumes of waste. REMONDIS has recognized this problem. Since 2008, we have been helping Russia to adapt its environmental service branch to meet western standards.
Spirit of optimism in the waste management branch
The City of Dzerzhinsk in the region of Nizhny Novgorod is characteristic of many Russian towns. Under the Soviet Union, this large city had one of the largest concentrations of chemical businesses in the country. Major environmental problems became an everyday occurrence. The first steps have now been taken to reorganize the infrastructure with the help of a public private partnership (PPP), REMONDIS Dzerzhinsk. To begin with, the cooperation work between the City of Dzerzhinsk and REMONDIS is concentrating on municipal waste. In the future, however, the activities are to be extended throughout the whole of the region of Nizhny Novgorod as well as to include the collection and processing of bulky waste and household waste.
Partnership for water management in Arzamas
Located a good 400 kilometres east of Moscow, REMONDIS Arzamas Service is responsible for the supply of water as well as for collecting and treating wastewater. This PPP company, in which the City of Arzamas is a shareholder, operates water management facilities and is investing in the modernization of such plants.
There is much to do. Even hazardous waste such as waste oil or solvents often ends up on fly-tips in Russia. |
Action needed urgently
Around 100,000 tonnes of municipal waste is generated each year in Dzerzhinsk alone. The rate of material and thermal recycling in Russia lies at around 4 percent.