The system of treating solid residential waste has existed in our country since Soviet Union times and was based largely on landfill disposal.

As per statistical data, there are 4,525 landfill waste sites in Kazakhstan. 307 sites (6.8%) are registered, i.e. they have designated areas, approved by sanitary and ecological inspections, have emission permits in places, etc. Consequently, the remaining 93.2% of the sites mostly do not conform to ecological and sanitary regulations of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

As estimated by the Ecology Ministry, there is 22 billion tons of waste, including 96 million tons of solid residential waste accumulated in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The volume of the waste accumulated in annually increasing by 2 million tons. Its major part is transported to and stored at open landfill sites without being divided into components.

Solid residential waste consists of organic waste, recoverable resources and waste, containing hazardous components, such as automobile tyres (about 100 thousand pieces a year), lubricating oils (about 49 million litres a year), coolant liquids waste (about 4.2 million litres a year) and accumulators (about 2.8 million pieces a year).

Less than 5% of the garbage is processed; the remaining garbage is stored at landfill sites without sorting, which causes additional pollution. Experts estimate that about 40% of solid residential waste could to be used as recoverable resources in the industry, and another 30% is compostable. Car service waste can also be used to produce valuable materials, including fuel and lubricant materials, construction materials, etc. For instance, 1 ton of tyres contain 700 kg rubber, 160 kg metals and 170 kg fabric.

Consequently, recycling of solid residential waste into recoverable resources is a perspective field in Kazakhstan, both economically and ecologically.

Solid residential waste management has several objectives:

-environmental impact mitigation;

-recycling of recoverable resources;

-improvement of yard territories’ quality.

Presently in Kazakhstan there are measures taken to mitigate negative impact of waste for the environment. There are organisations in several cities that process and recycle solid residential waste; waste paper reception facilities are set up in several cities.