“Let’s recycle!” says Moscow’s mayor

Russia – The department of environmental management and protection in the Russian capital Moscow has launched a campaign to encourage recycling among city residents.

‘Waste sorting and recycling are the only way out since mayor Sergei Sobyanin ordered a halt to construction on new waste burial facilities around Moscow, and the old factories and trash dumps will soon reach their limits,’ report local media.

The ‘Sort and Use’ campaign began on August 29 and will last until October 11, during which period mobile waste-sorting stations will appear at weekends at 70 locations throughout Moscow, including near shopping areas, metro stations, schools and apartment buildings.

Local residents are being encouraged to visit the stations with their sorted paper, plastics, metals and glass as well as with discarded batteries. The department hopes the campaign will help Russians to break their decades-old habit of throwing all refuse into one container.

Greenpeace has criticised the campaign, calling it ‘nothing but a PR stunt to create a green image for the Moscow government’. According to the environmental group, the city has 15 square kilometres of landfill outside the city with an estimated total volume of 11 million tonnes – with only 4% currently recycled.