Kuchino landfill: history, description, reviews

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Moscow is a rapidly growing metropolis. New districts 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 garbage dumps: exhausted and active. Therefore, it became necessary to take a set of measures to close the landfills and their subsequent reclamation. One of the infamous dumps, Kuchinskaya, worked until 2017, despite the fact that the distance from it to the nearest village was only 200 m, and to the new district of the city of Balashikha - about 1 km.

History of polygon appearance

The landfill in Kuchino appeared in the mid-1960s, when rubbish from nearby territories began to be dumped into an exhausted clay quarry. Over the years, the Kuchino landfill 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 landfill is Procurer, which is a limited liability company. The landfill received about 600,000 tons of waste every year. The Kuchino test site operated under a license, its management had everythingnecessary permissions. Dump trucks with garbage brought waste there from all over Moscow around the clock. Locals even complained that the noise from the cars kept them from sleeping well at night.

Houses next to the garbage dump

The worst thing is that near the Kuchino landfill is the village of Fenino and new housing complexes. People who live there see the dump from the window, and this view cannot be called the most pleasant. But the worst thing is not even that, but the fact that the locals were forced to endure the unpleasant odors that a giant pile of garbage exudes. It may even have had a negative impact on their he alth. At the very least, people complained of headaches, respiratory problems, nausea.

Pollution of nearby areas

It is known that many dump trucks did not take the 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 resulting filtrate 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 he alth, and therefore the leachate contained harmful substances. Often there were fires at the landfill due to gas accumulating in the waste. According to local residents, because of this, the smell from the landfill was simply unbearable. It is known that sludge residue from the Lyubertsy sewage treatment plant was brought to this landfill.structures. According to eyewitnesses, the slopes of the landfill, as well as the area near the village of Fenino, were covered with silt.

Recycling waste

According to the owner of the Kuchino landfill, Zagotovitel LLC became the initiator of MSW processing. Almost half of the brought waste was sorted and used as secondary raw materials. Bottles, paper, textiles and metals, and more were sent for recycling. However, the landfill still grew at a very rapid pace and had a negative impact on all nearby areas. Gas emissions spread over long distances, because of which the inhabitants of not only Balashikha, but also Zheleznodorozhny, Lyubertsy, and some districts of Moscow suffered.

The negative impact of the landfill

The landfill in the immediate vicinity of residential buildings poses a great threat. Despite the fact that environmental protection measures and environmental monitoring were carried out at the Kuchino landfill, it has a negative impact on the environment.

The following negative aspects of the activities of the Kuchino landfill can be distinguished:

• Emission of toxic landfill gas that spreads to all nearby areas;
• periodic uncontrolled fires at the landfill;
• allocation of leachate, contamination of nearby water bodies, ingress of toxic compounds into groundwater;
• isolation of dioxin compounds, which are the strongest poisons and carcinogens that cause cancerdiseases;
• Invasion of rats and cockroaches on the nearest houses.

Based on this, the closure of the Kuchino test site was simply necessary.

Dump closes

The polygon became truly world-famous after residents of nearby areas complained about it to the President of Russia during the "Direct Line". A few days later, the authorities decided to close the Kuchino landfill ahead of schedule.

Recultivation of landfill

As soon as the landfill was closed, work began on the reclamation of the landfill. This process includes two stages: technical and biological. At the technical stage, the body of the landfill is reinforced with engineering structures, special drains are created to collect the leachate, and the waste is isolated from the environment by screens. The biological stage includes a number of agrotechnical measures and planting of plants at the site of the former landfill. One of the most important tasks of this stage is to prevent moisture from entering the body of the landfill.

Degassing

The degassing process plays a very important role in reclamation. At the Kuchino training ground, these activities are already underway. Their purpose is to collect the gases emitted by the waste. A large number of wells were drilled on the body of the landfill, which were connected to a torch that neutralizes and burns landfill gas. According to official figures, complaints from local residents about unpleasant odors have become much less.

Landfill is a global problem

Where to put the waste? ThisIn recent decades, the issue has become one of the most pressing in the world. Mankind throws out a huge amount of waste every year, and it is dangerous to store them in landfills, because they cause irreparable damage to the environment. One of the most optimal solutions is the construction of waste processing plants. This will not only get rid of waste, but also help to obtain secondary raw materials for the production of something. In Russia, there are such plants, but they are few, so the garbage continues to be dumped in landfills. The Kuchino landfill was closed. Tons of waste that he took daily are now being transported to other districts of the Moscow region.

Reviews about the Kuchino test site

Residents of the areas adjacent to the landfill wrote complaints to a variety of authorities, sounded the alarm, talked on the forums about the deterioration of their he alth. They tried in every way to draw public attention to this huge landfill, which was located in close proximity to residential buildings. On the Internet, you can find a huge number of reviews about unpleasant odors from the Kuchino landfill. At a certain wind direction, it was felt by residents of Balashikha, Zheleznodorozhny, Lyubertsy, as well as many districts of Moscow. Residents of the entire eastern and southeastern districts of the capital were worried about the he alth 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 have significantly decreased. positive role inthis was played by the degassing of the landfill.

Conclusion

The Kuchino landfill (popularly known as the Feninsky landfill) has been receiving 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 has been brewing for a long time, but this happened only in 2017. Currently, it is actively undergoing a reclamation procedure. We would like to hope that the technical and biological stages will be completed according to the latest international standards, thanks to which the landfill will become completely harmless to the population and the environment. Waste processing plants are actively operating all over the world, which allows solving the problem of waste. It remains to be hoped that this experience will be taken as the basis for the waste reform in Russia. There are currently waste recycling facilities, but they are few in number. However, new plants of this kind are under construction.