Sustainable Strategy for the Waste Management in Turkmenistan
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A Service of Leibniz-Informationszentrum econstor Wirtschaft Leibniz Information Centre Make Your Publications Visible. zbw for Economics Korostova, Anna Working Paper Sustainable strategy for the waste management in Turkmenistan UFZ Discussion Paper, No. 5/2020 Provided in Cooperation with: Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) Suggested Citation: Korostova, Anna (2020) : Sustainable strategy for the waste management in Turkmenistan, UFZ Discussion Paper, No. 5/2020, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Umweltforschung (UFZ), Leipzig This Version is available at: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/222532 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Documents in EconStor may be saved and copied for your Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. personal and scholarly purposes. 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From the waste management to circular economy ............................................................ 4 1.1 From the waste management to circular economy ...................................................... 4 1.1.1 Waste classification ............................................................................................... 4 1.1.2 Waste treatment methods and waste hierarchy ..................................................... 7 Waste hierarchy ............................................................................................................ 10 1.1.3 Circular economy ................................................................................................ 11 1.2 Waste in SDGs framework ........................................................................................ 13 1.3 Social-economical aspects of waste management ..................................................... 17 2. Current state of the waste management in Turkmenistan................................................ 23 2.1 Country overview, legal framework in the area of Waste management .................... 23 2.1.1 Country overview ................................................................................................ 23 2.1.2 Legal framework ................................................................................................. 24 2.2 Waste collection and disposal system in Turkmenistan ............................................ 27 2.2.1 Waste collection .................................................................................................. 27 2.2.2 Waste disposal methods and sites ....................................................................... 30 2.2.3 Waste composition and recycling ....................................................................... 33 2.3. Residents insights in waste management .................................................................. 35 2.3.1 Data collection and Methodology ....................................................................... 36 2.3.2 Data analysis and discussion ............................................................................... 37 2.3.3 Critique ................................................................................................................ 41 3. Analysis of barriers and recommendations ..................................................................... 42 3.1 Analysis of barriers .................................................................................................... 42 3.2 Waste management in Turkmenistan in SDGs framework. ...................................... 44 3.3 Recommendations for waste management strategy in Turkmenistan ....................... 47 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 51 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................ 52 Appendix I. Sustainable Development Goals ...................................................................... 57 Appendix II. Waste management in Turkmenistan overview ............................................. 58 Appendix III. Questionnaire design..................................................................................... 59 Appendix IV. Survey results. .............................................................................................. 62 Appendix V. Study analysis. ............................................................................................... 71 1 Introduction Problem statement: The increase of household waste is the problem, which is exponentially growing along with the economic and demographic development of the world. Problems with waste disposal are not historically new, but structure and composition of waste in the last highly industrialized century became much more complex. Some new types of waste, which are not so easily dissolved within the natural lifecycle, require specific approaches and measures for handling it. Therefore, despite the ecological nature of this problem, it is impossible to solve it without economic instruments and elaborated comprehensive approach engaging all stakeholders. The circular economy is one of the concepts, which aimed to provide the solution to waste problem, by making waste a part of the economic cycle, and to make economic development be sustainable. Hence, waste management is now regarded not only as an environment protection activity, which require consistent financial investments, but also as a prosperous business sector, where finance can be also generated. Nevertheless, in most of the countries the potential of this field is not properly used. In the developing, poor- and middle-income countries the potential of waste management is usually underestimated or not considered at all. However, the opportunities which are hidden in waste practices could be especially beneficial for these countries, as they solve a wide range of problems, including resources scarcity, unemployment, GHG emissions, environment and air pollution itself. Therefore, waste sorting at source and recycling, various innovative solutions should not be considered as a privilege of developed countries only, but on the contrary, the opportunity for all countries at the different level of economic development in order to be sustainable. This study will concentrate on the case of Turkmenistan, newly industrialized country appeared in the world map after the collapse of Soviet Union in early 90ties. Along with other countries they were engaged with the rebuilding of their new economy and the issues of waste management were set apart. In the recent years, the need to adhere to international norms in order to achieve sustainable economic development requires to consider environmental impact of the activities, including in the waste management. Recycling and waste management gained more attention in the country, but there is still a lot of work to do. The aim of this work is to provide a comprehensive overview of waste management in Turkmenistan and to provide recommendations and solutions in order to achieve sustainable development goals, adjusting the existing tools and practices to the case of this 2 country. An increase of share of the circular economy as well as the reduction of disposed waste quantities are considered as the main goal of proposed activities. As this work is focused on the municipal solid waste (MSW), e.g. household and other urban waste, another question which arises with the development and implementation of waste management strategies is the acceptance and willingness to participate in these practices by residents, essential actors of household waste management on the everyday basis. The range of financial incentives and penalties should be chosen both to make the waste separation attractive to participate in for residents and to secure its efficiency in the long term. This work will also shed the light on the residents’ attitudes and knowledge on the recycling and sorting of waste, as well as their willingness to participate in waste sorting and reaction to deposit-refund system. The literature used as a theoretical background for this paper constitutes from following types of sources: scientific articles in the field of waste management and sustainability; analytical reports from environmental projects in Central Asia and worldwide;