Infrastructure

"Zero Waste Games" is a key element of the Sochi 2014 Environmental Strategy adopted in June 2009. It stipulates radical changes to the waste management systems in the Sochi region. For example, at present 97% of construction waste is recycled directly for the purposes of Olympic construction, while during construction of the second loading yard in the Imeretinskaya Valley over 12,000 tonnes of concrete was reprocessed and re-used.

On the site of the old rubbish incinerating plant in Sochi (in the Khostinsky region) a new waste-sorting plant is operating in test mode, at which 2 sections have already been put into operation. Inside them, waste is divided up into 8 different flows and collected in the appropriate containers, which are specially marked. The containers collected are sent off to reprocessing companies (for example, biodegradable material including food waste is sent for composting). In addition to this, an integrated waste management plan is being developed, and work is ongoing to bring in suppliers of environmentally friendly, recycled material.

In Sochi's Adler region, construction of new cleaning facilities has begun. The first line, with a capacity of 50,000 cubic meters a day, was launched in October 2011. The second line, with a capacity of 100,000 cubic meters a day, will be launched in December 2012.

Work has been completed on the regeneration of the Adler rubbish dump - the Adler Solid Domestic Waste landfill is now the first landfill site in Russia to have implemented the best foreign regeneration practices. The waste is "buried" under a special multi-layered covering made of sand and crushed stone, all this is covered over with a layer of clay, and engineering links are put in under the landfill in order to funnel off and burn the harmful gases and filtrates. Moreover, by 2013 the rubbish dump in the village of Loo will cease to accept waste. In the future, the dumps in Loo and Adler, where waste ceased to be stored back in 2010, will be regenerated.

The bypass road around Sochi has already been equipped with systems for collecting and cleaning surface flows, thereby preventing the flow of polluted substances from the road into the river and from there into the sea.

By the middle of 2013, the required regulatory level of cleaning for domestic and everyday flows, and rainwater flows, will be guaranteed in the resort city of Sochi. In accordance with the federal construction program for the Olympic venues and the development of the city of Sochi as an alpine climate resort, 5 new water towers are going to be built. The first of these - "Esto-Sadok - Mzymtinsky" - has a capacity of 14,000 cubic meters of water a day, and has already been put into operation.

Implementing the plans set out above will enable us not only to hold the 2014 Games in accordance with the "Zero Waste" principles, but will also help to develop a rational attitude towards waste among those living in the city and the country as a whole.