Moscow is a megalopolis growing at a very fast pace. New areas and housing complexes are being built both in the capital and in the cities of the Moscow Region. Many of them began to get close to the landfills: spent and existing. Therefore, it became necessary to take a set of measures to close landfills and their subsequent reclamation. One of the notorious landfills, Kuchinskaya, worked until 2017, despite the fact that the distance from it to the nearest village was only 200 m, and about 1 km to the new district of the city of Balashikha.
Polygon History
A landfill in Kuchino appeared in the mid-1960s, when garbage from nearby territories began to be taken into a used clay quarry. Over the years, the Kuchino training ground has grown to gigantic proportions. Currently, the landfill can be seen even from space. Its area exceeded 50 hectares. Since 1997, the official owner of the Kuchino training ground has been the Procurement Authority, which is a limited liability company. Each year, the landfill received about 600,000 tons of waste. The Kuchino training ground was licensed, its management had all the necessary permissions. Dump trucks with garbage brought there waste from all over Moscow around the clock. Local residents even complained that the noise from the cars did not allow them to sleep peacefully at night.
Houses near the landfill
The worst thing is that near the Kuchino landfill there is the village of Fenino and new housing complexes. People living there see the landfill from the window, but this view cannot be called the most pleasant. But the worst thing is not even this, but the fact that the locals were forced to endure the unpleasant odors emanating from a giant pile of garbage. Perhaps she even had a negative effect on their health. At least people complained of headaches, respiratory problems, and nausea.
Pollution of nearby territories
It is known that many dump trucks did not bring garbage to the landfill and dumped it in other places, thereby polluting the environment. A lot of waste fell into the bed of the Pekhorka River, which is located in close proximity to the Kuchino landfill. In addition, the filtrate formed flowed into the river - a gray-black liquid released during the decomposition of garbage. Among the waste, there were those that pose a danger to human health, therefore, the leachate contained harmful substances. Often, landfill fires occurred due to gas accumulating in the waste. According to local residents, because of this, the smell of the landfill was unbearable. It is known that silt residue from the Lyubertsy treatment facilities was brought to this landfill. According to eyewitnesses, the slopes of the landfill were covered with silt, as well as the area near the village of Fenino.
Garbage recycling
According to the owner of the Kuchino landfill, Zagotovitel LLC became the initiator of the processing of solid waste. Almost half of the delivered waste was sorted and used as secondary raw materials. Bottles, paper, textile and metal products and much more were sent for recycling. However, the landfill still grew at a very fast pace and had a negative impact on all nearby territories. Gas emissions spread over long distances, because of which residents of not only Balashikha, but also Zheleznodorozhny, Lyubertsy, and some areas of Moscow suffered.
Negative impact of landfill
A landfill in close proximity to residential buildings poses a great threat. Despite the fact that environmental measures were taken at the Kuchino dump, as well as environmental monitoring, it has a negative impact on the environment.
The following negative aspects of the Kuchino training ground can be distinguished:
- the release of toxic landfill gas, which is distributed in all nearby territories;
- periodic uncontrolled fires at the landfill;
- filtrate separation, contamination of nearby bodies of water, poisonous compounds entering groundwater;
- the release of dioxin compounds, which are the strongest poisons and carcinogens that cause cancer;
- the invasion of rats and cockroaches on nearby homes.
Based on this, the closure of the Kuchino training ground was simply necessary.
Landfill closure
The landfill has become truly world famous after residents of nearby areas complained to the Russian president about it during the Direct Line. A few days later, the authorities decided to prematurely close the Kuchino MSW landfill.
Landfill Reclamation
As soon as the landfill was closed, the landfill reclamation work began on it . This process includes two stages: technical and biological. At the technical stage, the landfill body is strengthened by engineering structures, special drains are created to collect the filtrate, and the waste is isolated from the environment by screens. The biological phase includes a number of agricultural activities and planting at the site of the former landfill. One of the main tasks of this stage is to prevent moisture from entering the body of the landfill.
Degassing
A very important role in reclamation is played by the degassing process. At the Kuchino training ground, these events are already being held. Their goal is to collect waste gases. A large number of wells were drilled on the landfill body, which were connected to a torch that neutralized and burned landfill gas. According to official figures, complaints of local residents about unpleasant odors have become much less.
Garbage dumps - a global problem
What to do with waste? This issue in recent decades has become one of the most pressing in the world. Humanity throws out a huge amount of waste annually, and it is dangerous to store them at landfills, because they bring irreparable damage to the environment. One of the most optimal solutions is the construction of waste recycling plants. This will not only allow you to get rid of waste, but also help to get recycled materials for the production of something. There are such plants in Russia, but there are few of them, so garbage continues to be dumped in landfills. The Kuchino training ground was closed. Tons of waste that he received daily is now being transported to other areas of the Moscow region.
Reviews on the Kuchino training ground
Residents of areas adjacent to the landfill wrote complaints to various authorities, sounded the alarm, talked about the deterioration of their health on the forums. They tried in any way to draw public attention to this huge dump, which was in the immediate vicinity of residential buildings. On the Internet you can find a huge number of reviews about unpleasant odors from the Kuchino landfill. With a certain direction of the wind, it was felt by the inhabitants of Balashikha, Zheleznodorozhny, Lyubertsy, as well as many areas of Moscow. Residents of the entire eastern and southeastern regions of the capital were worried about the health of their children, because many had allergic reactions, respiratory diseases and other serious illnesses. Many even sold their homes to move to other areas. After the closure of the landfill and the beginning of its reclamation, odors significantly decreased. The degassing of the landfill played a positive role in this.
Conclusion
Landfill "Kuchino" ("Feninsky dump" among the people) took garbage for half a century. During this time, many harmful and even life-threatening compounds have accumulated on it. The need to close the landfill was brewing for a long time, but this only happened in 2017. Currently, it is actively carrying out the reclamation procedure. I would like to hope that the technical and biological stages will be carried out according to the latest international standards, so that the landfill will become completely harmless to the population and the environment. Garbage processing plants are actively operating around the world, which allows solving the problem of waste. It is hoped that this experience will be taken as the basis of the garbage reform in Russia. There are currently waste processing enterprises, but there are few of them. However, new plants of this kind are under construction.