Landfills in Russia

• Electronic waste in Russia
• Recycling of garbage
• Incinerators of Russia
• Technologies in recycling

Industrial waste

Main article: Industrial waste

2024

Growth in the production of municipal solid waste in Russia by 2.5% to 51.2 million tons

In 2024, the volume of solid municipal waste generation in Russia increased to 51.2 million tons. The indicator increased by 2.5% compared to the previous year. Such data in October 2025 leads the research company BusinesStat in its annual market analysis.

For the five-year period from 2020 to 2024, the increase was 6%. In 2020, the volume of MSW reached 48.3 million tons. In 2021, the figure increased to 49.9 million tons. In 2022, 50.0 million tons of waste were recorded. In 2023, the volume increased to 51.2 million tons.

The main reason for the growth is the increase in the consumption of disposable goods. The growth of the volume of packaging used also affects. Experts note positive dynamics in the field of waste processing.

In 2024, 55% of the total MSW was allocated for processing. This corresponds to 28.2 million tons of waste. The remaining 45% or 23.0 million tons are placed in landfills and landfills.

From September 1, 2025, new standards for waste disposal facilities are in effect in Russia. For new enterprises with a capacity of up to 100 thousand tons per year, the standard for the extraction of secondary resources is set at 13%. For facilities with a capacity of over 100 thousand tons, the standard is 15%.

For facilities put into operation until September 1, 2025, the transition period will last until September 1, 2026. They need to ensure the recovery of at least 9% of the secondary raw materials.

The largest operators in the field of waste management are:

1. Ecotechprom JSC.
2. JSC "Nevsky Ecological Operator."
3. LLC Charter"."
4. Ekolife LLC.
5. LLC "MSK-NT."

New standards should stimulate the development of the waste processing industry. They also contribute to increasing the efficiency of the use of secondary resources. It is expected to reduce the volume of waste disposal at landfills.^[1]

The volume of household waste for the year increased to 47.5 million tons

The total volume of household waste in Russia reached 47.5 million tons in 2024. The indicator increased by 396 thousand tons compared to 2023. The average Russian left behind 325 kg of garbage per year. The increase was 3 kg per person. This is evidenced by the data of the audit and consulting company Finexpertiza, published on September 29, 2025.

According to TASS with reference to this study, the dynamics of household waste generation over the year remained relatively stable. At the same time, retail turnover increased by 7.2% in 2024. Real disposable incomes of citizens increased by 7.3%. This discrepancy shows that the rate of consumption of goods and services is not always directly related to the amount of waste generated.

𝓲

Фото: Freepik

The mass of municipal solid waste per capita varies between regions up to four times. The gap between the leaders and outsiders of the rating reaches significant values. The geography of garbage generation depends on many factors.

The first place in terms of waste per capita was taken by the Magadan region. Residents of the region produced an average of 650.8 kg of garbage per person in 2024. The ten leading regions in the production of household waste were:

• Magadan region - 650.8 kg per resident per year;
• Kaliningrad region - 507.8 kg;
• Chukotka Autonomous Okrug - 458.5 kg;
• Ryazan region - 454.1 kg;
• Crimea - 441.4 kg;
• Moscow agglomeration - 440.2 kg;
• Voronezh region - 430.5 kg;
• Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug - 428.9 kg;
• Sakhalin Oblast - 422.1 kg;
• Kaluga region - 416.9 kg.

The smallest volume of garbage per resident was recorded in. Buryatia The figure was 151.2 kg per year. In second place is located Kalmykia with a result of 212.6 kg per person. Closes the top three outsiders of Tuva with an indicator of 215.6 kg. The Jewish Autonomous Region produced 221.2 kg of waste per resident. Khakassia In recorded 226.8 kg of garbage per person. Mari El showed a result of 231 kg per resident. Volgograd region generated 238.6 kg of waste. In Chuvashia, 242.6 kg of garbage per capita was formed. Altai Territory recorded 245.8 kg of waste per person. Yakutia completes the list with an indicator of 247.9 kg per resident.^[2]

2023

The number of illegal landfills in Russia decreased by 17%, to 10.3 thousand

The FinExpertiza analytical service, based on data from Rosprirodnadzor, recorded a record decrease in the number of unauthorized landfills in Russia to 10.3 thousand objects as of November 18, 2024. Over the year, the indicator decreased by 2.2 thousand objects.

That's the lowest value on record for the entire five-year record, analysts said. The trend towards a reduction in the number of natural waste disposal sites has been observed for the second year in a row.

Changes in legislation coming into force from 2025 will help solve the problem of identifying those responsible for the elimination of landfills in controversial situations.

Astrakhan region led the anti-rating of regions with 977 objects of spontaneous waste disposal. It is followed by the Republic of Buryatia with 853 landfills and the Orenburg region, where 793 illegal objects were recorded.

The top ten regions with the largest number of unauthorized landfills also included Bashkortostan (418), Krasnoyarsk Territory (381), Novosibirsk Region (306), Tomsk Region (304), Kamchatka Territory (280), Komi Republic (260) and Chelyabinsk Region (252).

The most successfully coped with the problem in Bashkortostan, where the number of landfills decreased by 483 objects. Significant progress was made in the Chelyabinsk region, eliminating 261 objects, and in the Tver region, where the number of landfills decreased by 177.

In 2023, 14 thousand new spontaneous landfills were identified in the country, while 16.2 thousand objects were liquidated. In 60 regions, the pace of liquidation exceeded the speed of emergence of new illegal waste storage sites.

The Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia, within the framework of the federal project "Clean Country," eliminated 53 large landfills in 2023. Another 63 unauthorized waste disposal facilities are planned for 2024.^[3]

10 regions of the Russian Federation leading in terms of garbage volume

In mid-October 2024, the results of a study were published, which revealed the top ten Russian regions leading in terms of solid municipal waste (MSW) produced. The analysis of the data showed significant differences in the amount of garbage generated between the subjects of Russia.

According to the analytical company Finexpertiza, based on data from Rosprirodnadzor, the largest amount of municipal waste in 2023 was produced by the Moscow agglomeration, including Moscow and the Moscow region. This region accounted for 18.9% of the total MSW in the country.

The second place was taken by the Krasnodar Territory with a share of 5.1% of the total volume of MSW. In third position is St. Petersburg with an indicator of 3.4%. This is followed by Tatarstan and the Sverdlovsk region, each of which produced 3.1% of the all-Russian volume of garbage.

The sixth place in the ranking was taken by the Rostov region with a share of 2.8%, followed by the Samara region with 2.4%. The top ten leaders are Nizhny Novgorod, Voronezh regions and Bashkortostan, each of which accounts for 2.1% of the total MSW in the country.

Finexpertiza President Elena Trubnikova noted that the increase in the mass of municipal waste by 3% in 2023 is associated with an increase in consumer activity and an increase in the real disposable income of citizens by 5.4%. Retail turnover during this period increased by 6.4%, and sales through marketplaces accompanied by additional packaging increased almost 2 times.

In general, in 2023, the total volume of generated household waste in Russia increased by 1.3 million tons, reaching 47.2 million tons. On average, 322.3 kg of garbage accounted for one Russian, which is 9.7 kg more than in 2022.

Experts note that the increase in garbage generation does not necessarily lead to additional damage to the environment with an effective waste management infrastructure. In 2023, 11 waste disposal and recycling plants were launched in Russia, as well as 17 enterprises and landfills for the disposal, neutralization and disposal of waste.^[4]

In Russia, 80% of household waste is littered

In Russia, about 80% of household waste is sent to landfills. Such data analysts FinExpertiza published at the end of December 2023.

According to the study, in January to November 2023, 79.9% of the total mass of all generated household waste was allocated for burial. A year earlier, this figure was 81.1%, and for the same period in 2021 - 86.7%. According to the national project "Ecology," by 2024 the share of littered garbage should decrease to 87.9%.

According to experts, the leaders in the share of garbage reuse are Moscow (52.9%) and Moscow region (50%), Oryol region (43.5%), Ingushetia (35%), Ulyanovsk region (33.4%), Kamchatka (33%) and Stavropol (31%) territories.

About half of the regions have reduced the share of household waste disposed of at landfills. Most noticeably - in the Bryansk region (by 40.9%), the Sverdlovsk region (by 18.9%) and the Stavropol Territory (by 14.3%).

In a tenth of the regions, the rate of buried garbage has not changed. Basically, these are subjects with a complete lack of the necessary infrastructure for MSW management, which, like a year ago, are sent to the burial of 100% of educated MSW: Karelia, Dagestan, Altai Republic, Tuva, Khakassia, Magadan Region.

By 2030, the rate of disposal of municipal solid waste (MSW) is planned to be reduced to 49.8%. This means that over the next seven years, the share of garbage sent to landfills should decrease by an average of 4.3 percentage points per year, said Aghvan Mikaelyan, member of the board of directors of FinExpertiza, at the end of December 2023. As for the sorting level, in January-November 2023 it amounted to 52.7%, exceeding the target of 50.2%. Recycling rose to 12.7%, also beating the planned 12.1%.^[5]

2022

Domestic waste volume grew by 3.8% to 363 mln cubic meters.

At the end of 2022, the volume of solid municipal waste (MSW) production in Russia reached 362.9 million cubic meters, which is 3.8% more than a year earlier. Compared to 2018, the figure increased by 32%, according to analysts at BusinesStat, whose data was released at the end of December 2023.

According to the researchers, the increase in the production of municipal solid waste in the Russian Federation is due to several factors, including:

• increased consumption of disposable goods;
• increasing the number of packages;
• insufficient awareness of the importance of the waste problem by the population;
• need for their disposal.

The study also notes that the main increase in the production of municipal solid waste in Russia occurred in 2018-2020, when the production of solid waste in the country increased by 23% and reached 340 million cubic meters. The prevalence of disposable goods contributed to the high growth rate of waste volume. This trend has intensified in 2020.

During the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, people spent more time at home and produced more solid household waste, such as food packages, masks, gloves and other personal protective equipment. In connection with quarantine measures, the number of packages and plastic containers for the delivery of food and non-food products at home has increased, analysts add.

According to their calculations, about 40% of municipal solid waste is organic waste, more than 30% is waste from paper and cardboard, another 10% is plastic waste, the remaining 20% is waste from other materials. However, it is worth noting that such a structure of MSW is characteristic when measured in weight, and from the point of view of volumetric measures it will look different. Organic waste is characterized by more weight and less volume than waste from plastic, paper or cardboard. In this regard, in the volume structure of solid utility costs, plastic, paper and cardboard will account for significantly more than 30% of the weight they occupy.^[6]

Regions of the Russian Federation with the largest number of illegal landfills are named

By the end of 2022, the most illegal landfills in Russia were in Bashkiria. This was reported in June 2023 in the audit and consulting network FinExpertiza.

According to the study, the authors of which refer to the data of Rosprirodnadzor, by the end of 2022 there were 901 landfills in Bashkiria. The second line of the rating was taken by Buryatia with an indicator of 849 objects. The Orenburg region closed the top 3 of the list, where 787 illegal landfills were counted. Below in the list are the Astrakhan region (630 landfills), the Komi Republic (540 landfills) and the Chelyabinsk region (513 landfills).

According to experts, in 2022 the number of unauthorized waste dumps in Russia decreased by 17%, or 2.6 thousand objects. The total number of illegal landfills in Bashkortostan (-921 objects), Chelyabinsk region (-525), Perm Territory (-406), Samara Region (-294), Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug (-283), Nizhny Novgorod Region (-224), Sverdlovsk Region (-201), Leningrad Region (-164), Volgograd Region (-148), as well as St. Petersburg (-148).

In total, 16.43 thousand illegal landfills were identified in 2022, while 16% more were eliminated - 19.04 thousand objects. Liquidation work was most actively carried out in the Moscow region - there local authorities reported on cleaning up 2125 objects from garbage, as well as in the Sakhalin region (1693 landfills were liquidated), Ryazan region (1279), Perm Territory (1263), Nizhny Novgorod region (1118), Bashkortostan (1075), Chelyabinsk region (646), Pskov region (574), Leningrad region (512) and Samara region (511).

Rosprirodnadzor classifies unauthorized landfills as territories used for the disposal of production and consumption waste (including municipal solid waste), but not intended for this and not equipped in accordance with the requirements of legislation in the field of environmental protection and ensuring the sanitary and epidemiological well-being of the population. The landfill is distinguished from a simple accumulation of garbage by large areas and volumes of disposed waste - more than 10 square meters. m or more than 5 cubic meters. meters.^[7]

Notes