In Ukraine, there are 36 thousand waste dumps.

In the country, 95% of hard waste are put on dumps.

Over the recent years, Ukraine faced a new serious problem – the country is drowning in its own waste, Bloomberg wrote, Correspondent.net reports.

Currently, in Ukraine, there are a total of 36 thousand legal and illegal dumps, the waste from which would be enough to cover with the even layer the whole territory of the occupied Crimea and captured Donestsk and Lugansk regions.

The edition notes that Ukraine has enough problems with Pro-Russia militants on Donbass and the disappointment of investors in the economy of the country; however, now, the former Soviet republic is losing the fight with the waste.

The authorities hold off the payment of the bills, and the cities slowly promote the idea of waste utilization and cannot invest billions of dollars, required for construction of waste burning plants and other modern facilities.

The article emphasized that the risks become higher with each new tossed out plastic bottle, and the international companies, dealing with waste recycling, miss out the opportunity of potential business.

“Almost all dumps in Ukraine are not used according to its intended use. Anything may happen at any time on each of them”, Head of UNDP Environment and Energy Sector Sergei Volkov said.

According to the edition, Ukraine delivers 95% of hard waste to dumps. For comparison, according to Eurostat, the hard waste in EU countries makes up 45%. Only 4% of all Ukrainian waste are sorted for the second recycling versus 39% in EU countries.

The recyclable waste rate in EU countries and Ukraine for 2015

Therefore, in Ukraine, there is the risk of ecological disaster, as, for example, the recurrence of a large fire, which broke out on the dump near Lviv in May 2016 and was continuing for several weeks.

Meanwhile, each month, the Ukrainians pay the amount, equivalent to 26-37 cents, which are almost 1 dollar a month for a four-member family. It is not enough for covering the operating costs.

According to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, even taking into account that the Ukrainians are one of the poorest nations in Europe, the waste collection fee, set by the state, is much lower than economically justifiable.

As Correspondent.net reported, in Ukraine, the dozens of waste trucks from Lviv were blocked. Each day, other 500-600 tons of waste is added in this city.

Previously, the mayor Andrei Sadovoi claimed that Lviv is in the garbage blockade. He asked to declare the state of emergency in Lviv due to problems with garbage disposal.