Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- On 2 February, President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev chaired a videoconference on improving the waste management system and the environmental situation, and urgent tasks for implementing the Yashil Makon national project.

At the beginning of the meeting, the head of state addressed the public:

– From a young age, our parents taught us to keep the yard and the environment clean. Since ancient times, our people have treated the soil, water, and nature with care. It is no accident that there is a proverb "Cut down one tree - plant ten." The person who planted the tree was considered blessed. When a child was born in the family, a tree was planted in his honor.

In the 21st century, when industry is rapidly developing in the world, the environmental agenda comes to the fore. We must leave a healthy environment for posterity. To do this, you need to carefully treat nature, act, thinking not only about today, but also about the near and distant future.

The most important issue is to increase the ecological culture of the population. Look at the streets today and every other place. Everywhere you will see discarded waste. Our sacred country, we say. Why don’t we keep it clean then? After all, our sacred books say: "Cleanliness is half of faith."

Why do the media, mahalla activists not sound the alarm? Representatives of the older generation, our public?

Of course, this problem cannot be solved only by administrative methods. It is necessary to educate the young generation to love nature. We should create such an environment when in the mahalla, on the street, someone who has thrown garbage on the street is pointed out to the wrongness of his act. This is our common cause and human duty, - said Shavkat Mirziyoyev.

Topical issues of the sphere were discussed at the meeting.

According to the analysis, in almost all countries, the amount of municipal solid waste per capita is growing by 1 percent per year. Due to socio-economic growth in our country, the accumulation of waste is growing by 2 percent per year, the annual volume has reached 7 million tons.

However, the state of affairs in the system of their collection, sorting, processing and disposal is unsatisfactory. For example, only 10 percent of waste is recycled in Karakalpakstan, while only 20 percent is recycled in Ferghana and Kashkadarya regions. In 781 makhalla, the issue of waste disposal has not yet been resolved. The population has large receivables for waste collection services. Medical, educational institutions and markets require 19,000 waste containers.

There are no landfills for construction waste, it is dumped along roads, on the side of fields or into rivers. Last year, 4,000 cases of construction waste dumping in unauthorized places were discovered.

There is no clear system for collecting leaves and tree branches in neighborhoods, arrays and alleys, a unified system for the storage, transportation and disposal of medical waste.

In general, none of the 197 landfills across the country meet sanitary and environmental requirements, and 24 landfills are full. The State Committee for Ecology and Environmental Protection, khokims of the regions were instructed to streamline the landfills and eliminate those that have exhausted their resources. The importance of developing a draft law establishing the procedure for organizing and closing such landfills is indicated.

The possibility of increasing the coverage of services for the collection of household waste up to 95 percent and the volume of their processing up to 40 percent was indicated. For this, equipment, components and spare parts imported from abroad will be exempted from customs payments for a period of 3 years. For the purchase of sorting and processing equipment, preferential loans for up to 5 years will be allocated to cover a part of the loans that exceeds the refinancing rate. For these purposes, within 5 years, it is planned to allocate 500 billion soums in stages at the expense of concessional funds from international financial institutions.

The need to support entrepreneurs operating in the field was emphasized. Land, property and social tax rates for clusters with processing facilities will be set at 1 percent. In return, the clusters were given a condition to increase the level of recycling in their area by at least 40 percent.

Instructions were given to create such enterprises in regions and cities on the basis of public-private partnerships, purchase 500 units of special equipment for the regions, and install additional containers in social institutions and markets.

In addition, the Tashkent enterprise Mahsustrans will be transformed on the basis of a public-private partnership. A new system of collecting payments for the collection of household waste will be introduced using foreign experience.

The need to create a safe system for the disposal of organic, construction and medical waste was noted.

As you know, in November 2021, the nationwide project "Yashil Makon" was launched, within which it is planned to plant 200 million seedlings. Accordingly, 85 million seedlings were planted in autumn. Many organizations, mahallas, the general public took an active part in this action. This spring it is planned to plant 125 million tree seedlings.

- The nationwide project "Yashil Makon" is an event that will not be limited to one year. We aim to plant 1 billion seedlings over the next five years. The result of this work should be visible in every region, this good deed should be done in good faith, the head of state said.

At the meeting, the start of the national event "Green Year" from 1 March was announced. The importance of selecting seedlings suitable for the climate of each region, undemanding to water, increasing the number of nurseries for their harvesting was noted. The State Forestry Committee was instructed to distribute 10 million seedlings of fruit and ornamental trees to the population free of charge, the Committee on Highways - to organize protective plantings along roads of international and republican significance.

Responsible departments were instructed to organize the work of mobile environmental patrols covering all regions and cities.

At the meeting, information was heard from the officials of the sphere and khokims of the regions.