Kazakhstan to Increase Municipal Waste Processing

On July 24, Kazakhstan launched its first project to build a technological eco-park for processing solid municipal waste and producing electricity from biogas. According to the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Kazakhstan, the new facility will be equipped to sort 120 thousand tons of solid municipal waste and 120 thousand tons of large-sized waste, and process 80 thousand tons of organic waste per year. In response to an instruction by the head of state in February to secure investment for the construction of waste processing plants in Kazakhstan, the government has secured a pool of 94 investment projects to  increase municipal waste processing from 1 million to 2.2 million tons annually. In March, the government announced plans to build 37 new municipal solid waste processing plants and modernize eight existing plants. To support the initiative aimed to improve the country's environment, the government has given approval for an Industrial Development Fund, with an interest rate of 3 percent and loan terms from 3 to 15 years,  for projects related to waste management, including the purchase of rubbish trucks and the launch of sorting lines and processing facilities. Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov reported that recycling solid waste is profitable worldwide and Kazakhstan too, must exploit its potential in this field.