Mikhail Zaikov, ZAO Bioenergetik.
Experience of waste business development. Economics of mini thermal power-stations.

By various estimates, polymers make 10–30% of total municipal solid wastes in Russia. Their presence makes it impossible to recycle millions of tons of garbage accumulated at authorised and unauthorised landfills across the Russian Federation.

What danger polymers in garbage create? Are all polymers hazardous? What gas purification technologies used for thermal MSW utilisation are the most effective? Can accumulated landfills be eliminated in Russia without building large industrial plants nearby? What scheme of garbage and polymer waste delivery/sorting is the cheapest and the most friendly to the environment?

Michael Zaikov, director of ZAO Bioenergetik, who has been involved in waste processing in the Moscow region for 20 years, will try to answer those and other questions in his report at a roundtable dedicated to MSW.

Valery Blok, director of SPKB, Volgograd.
Review of MSW recycling technologies in Russia and abroad

All known technologies of waste recycling and processing have been entered the Russian market by 2010. Foreign experience shows that a rational organization of MSW processing offers a chance to use up to 90% of recycled polymers in the construction industry, for example as concrete aggregates. The incineration of 1,000 kg of MSWs yields energy equivalent to that produced by burning 250 kg of fuel oil. The real savings turn out to be even greater, since waste, unlike fuel oil, requires no expenses for its production.

When developing a thermal recycling technology, it is important to control atmospheric emissions of nitrogen dioxide and furans. Based on profitability and environmental friendliness, the following municipal solid wastes storage and recycling methods can be cited as promising: preliminary sorting, landfilling, incineration, biothermal composting, low-temperature and high-temperature pyrolysis.

Nikolai Petov, OOO Infomine
Estimation of volumes of food-grade PET recycling in Russia

Polymer recycling is at its initial stage of development in Russia. The use of recycled polymers holds much promise in view of continuous environmental restrictions. The growth of polymer recycling capacities that began in 2005 continued in 2008-2009. At least eight waste selection and recycling facilities are under design or construction at present, with four of them to be commissioned in 2011.

The current demand for recycled PET exceeds the supply. Delegates of the Russian Congress of Plastic Converters will be informed of the experience in the creation of polymer recycling enterprises and industrial chains in Russia, growth trends and market prospects, basic polymer recycling technologies.