Recycling tricks: it is proposed to ban the export of food waste to landfills near airports

The Russian Environmental Operator (REO) proposes to ban the transportation of organic waste to landfills located near airfields within a radius of 15 km. Food residues attract birds, large concentrations of which can be dangerous for aircraft at this distance. Therefore, the REO appealed to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment with a request to stop such a restriction by 2030, when 100% of garbage will be sorted in the Russian Federation. The company told Izvestia about this. The Ministry is already considering this proposal.

Why do they want to ban the storage of waste in landfills near airports

Russia has found an effective way to control large concentrations of birds near airports, which in the future may improve flight safety. Thus, the REO proposes to ban the transportation of food residues to landfills located within a radius of 15 km from airports. This is the so-called sixth subzone, it is here that landfills are prohibited, which contribute to the mass accumulation of birds, according to the Air Code. The new approach will deprive the birds of food, which means that their numbers in such sensitive areas will decrease dramatically. The company told Izvestia about this.

The REO has already sent such an initiative to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. The ministry has received this proposal and is considering it, the editorial staff said. In practice, we are talking about amendments to the government decree "On uniform requirements for facilities for the treatment, disposal, neutralization, and disposal of municipal solid waste."

Photo: RIA Novosti/Ilya Timin

If municipal solid waste (MSW) has not been processed, that is, organic matter has not been separated from other fractions, then such waste will not be sent to landfills, Denis Butsaev, CEO of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, explained to Izvestia. This should be done by 2030, when 100% of garbage in the Russian Federation will begin to be sorted by fractions, now slightly more than half of MSW falls under separation, he added.

— The REO has already established that the key factor in the mass accumulation of birds is the burial of organic waste — food residues - at MSW facilities. Therefore, the experts came to the conclusion that it would be rational to prohibit waste from being sent to these territories without first sorting them. Organic matter needs to be separated and composted in specially designated areas," the expert noted.

Birds can cause plane crashes if they get into the engine. Now they are being scared off with the help of sound and visual signals — for example, special equipment simulates the cries of birds of prey or other threats to birds of prey. But this approach is not always effective — they continue to get into aircraft engines. For example, it happened in 2022, when two seagulls hit the engines of a Su-34 military aircraft at the moment of takeoff. This led to a fire in one of the power plants and an airplane crash in Yeysk. In 2019, a Ural Airlines plane made a hard landing. The Airbus airliner was on a scheduled flight from Moscow to Simferopol, but a few seconds after departure from Zhukovsky airport, it collided with a flock of seagulls. The crew managed to land the liner right on its belly in a nearby cornfield, and then evacuate the passengers. All 226 passengers and seven crew members survived.

Photo: RIA Novosti/Evgeny Biyatov

Izvestia sent requests to the Ministry of Transport, the Federal Air Transport Agency and the country's largest airports — Sheremetyevo, Vnukovo, Domodedovo, Pulkovo.

How many landfills are there near airports

It is no coincidence that REO came up with such a proposal to the regulator. The fact is that last year, the regions with landfills in the sixth subzone had to conduct ornithological studies and evaluate the work — how birds are being scared off locally. The local authorities had to submit the research results to the REO, and the operator completed their collection and analysis in February of this year. In total, 164 MSW facilities operate in 60 regions in airport-sensitive areas. At the same time, 40% of such landfills in 19 regions have received negative conclusions and pose a particular risk to airports, the operator said.

But this is only part of the information: Izvestia previously wrote that more than 60 landfills near airfields are generally illegal. These facilities are also located within a radius of less than 15 km from airports and can potentially attract large concentrations of birds. Such objects can be removed only by a court decision, which must determine who should be responsible for this process.

Photo: RIA Novosti/Pavel Lisitsyn

In the total volume of MSW, organic matter accounts for 30-50% of the flow, in case of its burial, odor, gas and filtrate are released, Elena Vishnyakova, Deputy general director of the EcoLine Group, explained to Izvestia. In her opinion, direct disposal of organic waste should be banned in the future and two tasks should be completed. First of all, to build complexes for processing food waste into compost, which will make it possible to recycle organic matter into industrial soil. Moreover, it is necessary to develop regional programs to involve such compost in economic turnover, she noted.

Experts assessed this proposal of REO positively. For example, Oleg Panteleev, executive director of the Aviport agency, told Izvestia that if we reduce the amount of food waste that is taken to landfills near airports, this will reduce the accumulation of birds on them, which means it will reduce the risks to civil aviation. Moreover, this initiative does not require expenses from airport operators, which makes it an obvious benefit for them.

— There is no single solution to the ornithological problem. Therefore, the aviation community uses different approaches: from scaring birds with different methods to informing aircraft crews about the risks of a collision with birds, dispatchers inform them about large flocks in the airfield area," he added. — Airports do not have the ability to set requirements for landfill operators, the most they can do is mow the grass on their territory to prevent birds from nesting.

Photo: RIA Novosti/Maxim Blinov

If we talk about the technical side of the issue, the implementation of this approach may require additional funding and a long launch period — waste sorting still needs to be organized, Ilya Zotov, deputy chairman of the Public Council at the Ministry of Transport, told Izvestia. Plus, additional monitoring is needed at landfills in airport areas: information from the airfields themselves is often ignored.

— In large agglomerations, the issue of landfills has been resolved to one degree or another, but requires constant monitoring due to construction and the formation of chaotic landfills near airports. But the situation with airfields, which have lower capacity, is completely different — landfills are often not monitored here," he said.

Therefore, personal responsibility is important, and it would also be possible to establish the agency responsible for this issue, then it can be finally resolved, the social activist added.