Drowning in garbage: Ukraine struggles with trash crisis

Drowning in garbage: Ukraine struggles with trash crisis

PIDGIRTSI, Ukraine: For stray dogs and scavenging birds, Landfill No.5 outside the Ukrainian capital Kiev is a treasure trove of trash, but the mountains of overflowing and noxious garbage are plaguing residents. Nina Popova, a 73-year-old retired accountant who lives in the nearby village of Pidgirtsi, says life there is a misery. “It reeks. We’re all sick. We have heart problems and difficulty breathing,” Popova told AFP outside her modest brick cottage. Breathing heavily, she added that her children “suffocate” when they come to visit.

Covering 63 hectares (156 acres), the sprawling dump outside Kiev is one of the largest in Ukraine and part of network of more than 6,100 landfills. Already at capacity, it was slated for closure in 2018, with garbage diverted to a new site. But the new facility was never constructed and trash is piling higher and higher. The story of the site points to a larger problem in the country. Thirty years after Ukraine gained independence from the Soviet Union, it lacks a functioning waste management system and requisite resources to tackle a garbage crisis that is perpetuating public health and ecological concerns.

The president’s office concedes that most landfills are overflowing and fall short of safety