Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Today, on 14 June, Tashkent city khokimiyat hosted a press conference "Green Tashkent: interim results and plans on the path of separate waste collection" dedicated to the topic of separate collection of solid household waste. 

The journalists learned about the work carried out by the State Unitary Enterprise "Makhsustrans" to introduce separate waste collection. The basis for this work is the Resolution of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan “On measures to improve activities in the field of handling household and construction waste in the city of Tashkent” from 15 December 2020. This Presidential resolution determined a phased schedule for the introduction of a solid waste sorting system in Tashkent. Starting from 2021, within three years, in stages, the entire Tashkent should be covered by a solid waste sorting system.

The system of separate collection of solid household waste will be introduced in stages in the following order:

- At the 1st stage (2021) - waste collection with division into categories “recyclable”, “non-recyclable” and “organic” on the territory of 24 makhallas (two in each district), the list of which is determined by the khokimiyat of the city of Tashkent;

- At the 2nd stage (2022) - collection of solid household waste in the individual residential sector of all territories served by the State Unitary Enterprise “Makhsustrans”, with division into the categories “recyclable”, “non-recyclable” and “organic”;

- At the 3rd stage (2023) - collection of waste in all districts with their division into categories "recyclable", "non-recyclable", "organic", "hazardous household waste" and others.

The work can be divided into two parts: educational and propaganda work with the population and material support.

An expert with experience in conducting behavioral programs, head of the NGO "Council for Ecological Construction of Uzbekistan" Temur Akhmedov reported on the educational work. Work was carried out in 16 secondary schools, more than 2,500 schoolchildren and 40 teachers were covered. The work was also carried out in 24 makhallas with coverage of 250 makhallas workers, activists and aksakals.

For the second half of 2021, a large-scale program of activities is planned aimed at sustainable changes in the habits of people in the field of solid waste sorting. Among the planned activities and aspects:

- Citywide celebration of the World Day of Cleanliness on 18 September 2021. The holiday will be celebrated with mini-hashars throughout the city with the aim of collecting and sorting garbage from the streets of our city.

- Citywide campaigns for the collection of used batteries.

- A special information stand that will be installed at all major events in the capital.

- Expansion of the school curriculum in order to conduct classes with all students in target schools, the number of participants will be increased to 25,000. The school curriculum will include the Train-the-trainer methodology, that is, training teachers and equipping schools with materials for self-teaching.

- Expanding work with activists in the mahallas - with the aim of bringing information about the program to all 75,000 residents in the target 24 mahallas.

As regards the material support of the project, distribution of colored bags will begin this week, and from 1 July, the collection of sorted garbage will begin in 24 makhallas.

It is worth noting that Makhsustrans is facing a very important task - to work out the formula for scaling the program for sorting solid household waste to the entire private sector in 2022.