About 70% of Nubarashen landfill site is covered with a 2-meter layer of soil, as Yerevan Municipality informs. The required amount of soil to cover the landfill site was brought from the nearby hills. The whole area of the landfill has also been fenced.
The Nubarashen municipal landfill, which is the largest landfill in the country with an area of 52.3 hectares, has been open since its establishment in the 1950s. Toxic gases from large amounts of garbage are released into the atmosphere, and methane gas is the main cause of fires.
A part of the landfill site is still open. About 1000 tons of garbage is accumulated here every day.
According to the officials of "New Landfill Site" company of Yerevan Municipality, the land cover of most of the area is a temporary solution to the problem, until a new landfill site is built, which is in a tender process for now. It is planned to close the old landfill site and build a new one in accordance with European standards.
It should be noted that the new landfill site will be located next to the existing Nubarashen landfill site and will occupy about 29 hectares out of which 20.55 hectares is forest area. The landfill site will be built on forest land for which the Armenian government has allocated 59 million AMD.
The landfill site will receive 300,000 tonnes of waste annually and will be operated for 28 years. But there is no recycling of waste planned.
This is despite the fact that 26 million euros are planned to be spent on the construction of the landfill site, out of which 16 million Euros are provided in the form of loans from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the European Investment Bank, and 10 million Euros in grants from the European Union, Eastern European Energy Efficiency and Environment Partnership Foundation (E5P).
Photo Credit: Yerevan Municipality
August 31, 2021 at 13:41