Paris streets were an incredible sight on September 8, 1999, with all citizens riding bicycles, roller skates, battery-driven vehicles, or street cars, getting to work, school, or college. This was no publicity stunt or Greenpeace or something similar. It was the Automobile- Free Day celebrated in France. Experts later estimated that the pollution level had dropped by 25% that day, and this prompted the French to make the event a tradition. The weekend before last, Ukraine marked two ecological dates: Day of the Environment and Earth Day. The conference, Wastes: a New Vision, came as a logical sequel. The ecologists and physicians present discussed Ukraine’s second highest priority after Chornobyl: industrial, agricultural, household, and pharmaceutical waste management. Apart from statements attesting the absence of a uniform legal framework and criteria to determine the risks involved in various chemical compounds, no constructive solutions to the problems were offered. Meanwhile, such regulations and criteria have long been worked out. In the West, the adverse consequences of technological progress are combated using precisely that progress. Some auto companies produce ecologically safe vehicles consuming less than four liters of gasoline per 100 km. Biodiesels, cars using plant fuel, are increasingly popular in Germany. Alternative (renewable) sources of energy – wind, sun, geothermal – are also listed in that number. And there is a very popular waste-sorting method (nonexistent in Ukraine), which does not call for heavy investment.
In Ukraine, considering its geographic and weather factors, biogas technologies seem most acceptable. They are semifunctional, allowing (a) waste disposal without damaging the population and environment, and (b) an additional source of energy. Such a universal purpose technique (known in China several thousand years ago) consists in decomposing organic matter in the absence of air. Yury Matveyev, senior research fellow with the institute of technical thermal physics, told The Day that biogas is mostly known to Ukrainian ecologists in its negative manifestations, because its wrong and uncontrollable usage often causes fires at dumps and on proving grounds of solid wastes, with grave consequences for the environment; personnel poisoning risk is also high. At the same time, Mr. Matveyev stressed, biogas combustion in boilers three kilometers from the proving ground more often than not proves the most effective disposal method. Biogas can be used in central heating and industrial boilers in the construction industry. Another option is biogas enrichment, converting it into natural gas for pipelines and using it as auto fuel. Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources Serhiy Kurykin also insists on the usage of biogas technologies; he believes that this usage is facilitated by the advanced status of the agrarian sector. Simultaneously, Mr. Kurykin says that in this particular case popularizing biogas technologies upstairs will not bring the expected result. The only correct approach, in his opinion, is local initiative, introducing biogas technologies there.
There are over 500 dumps in Ukraine, lacking most essential facilities to prevent the pollution of underground waters and the atmosphere. Meanwhile, methane discharged from these dumps constitutes 6-18% of its overall emission in the atmosphere. Some 140 solid waste storage sites are proving grounds fit for the collection and further utilization of biogas. Interestingly, installations for biogas technologies are available in Ukraine (albeit not many), so the only thing missing is a desire to move forward.
