Industrial waste

Landfills in Russia

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2024: The volume of industrial waste in Russia for the first time decreased by 8% to 8.5 billion tons

Russian enterprises recorded the first reduction in industrial waste since 2020 - the total figure in 2024 amounted to 8.5 billion tons against 9.3 billion tons in 2023. The decrease of 8% was the result of changes in the rules for accounting for waste from the mining industries and a reduction in coal production. This is evidenced by the calculations of the analytical service of the audit and consulting network FinExpertiza, published in August 2025.

Analysts conducted a study based on data from Rosprirodnadzor and found that enterprises left behind 764 million tons less waste compared to 2023. FinExpertiza President Elena Trubnikova noted that the coal mining industry provided 93% of the total reduction.

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Фото: Freepik

The decrease in indicators was influenced by changes in the classification of subsoil use waste, effective from September 2023. Some of the overburden rocks - soil and rock masses extracted by mining companies - can now be classified as by-products suitable for use in land reclamation, site development and the production of building materials.

Trubnikova pointed out that a new approach to waste classification could lead to a drop in official figures even with a slight real reduction in volumes. Additional factors were a 0.6% decrease in coal production in 2024, more active use of secondary resources and the introduction of resource-saving technologies.

The Kemerovo region remains the leader in the formation of industrial waste with an indicator of 3.31 billion tons. The second place is occupied by Yakutia with a volume of 946.6 million tons, the third - the Krasnoyarsk Territory with 632.5 million tons. The Trans-Baikal Territory generated 461.1 million tons of waste, the Sakhalin Region - 364.7 million tons. These five regions account for about 70% of all industrial waste in the country.

The largest reduction in volumes was demonstrated by the Kemerovo region - by 769.8 million tons. A significant decrease was recorded in the Sakhalin region (130.2 million tons), Irkutsk region (92.9 million tons), Amur region (91.7 million tons) and Khakassia (56.3 million tons).^[1]

2023: The disposal of industrial waste in Russia has decreased by a third over the year. Regions

The volume of industrial waste disposal in Russia decreased by a third in 2023, despite the general increase in their generation. This became known in August 2024.

According to data provided by the analytical service of the audit and consulting network FinExpertiza, in 2023 Russian enterprises generated a record 9.3 billion tons of waste, which is 3% more than in 2022.

According to FinExpertiza, the bulk of industrial waste in Russia falls on the mining industries, which in 2023 generated 8.7 billion tons of waste. The lion's share of this waste, more than 90%, belongs to the most low-risk fifth hazard class. Despite this, their huge volumes continue to have a negative impact on the environmental situation in the regions. The bulk of waste is formed by stripping operations in the extraction of minerals, which account for 7.6 billion tons of waste.

According to FinExpertiza, among the regions with the largest volume of industrial waste, it traditionally leads, Kemerovo region where 4.08 billion tons of waste were produced in 2023, which is 44% of the total volume in Russia. They follow, and Yakutia, Krasnoyarsk Territory Sakhalin Oblast which also remain among the main pollutants.

The reduction in waste disposal was made possible by active work on waste disposal and recycling. In particular, about 40% of the total volume of overburden was returned to the production cycle, which made it possible to use this waste for the construction of roads, hydraulic structures and reclamation of developed quarries. As a result of such measures, the total mass of buried waste in Russia in 2023 decreased to 1.6 billion tons, which is a third less than in 2022.^[2]

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