Rubbish is becoming a political problem in Russia
Will more recycling solve it?
HEAPS OF PLASTIC bottles and containers fill bins reaching towards the ceiling in a warehouse on Moscow’s southern outskirts. At weekends hundreds of people line up to offload carefully sorted rubbish at Sobirator, a non-profit centre, one of a handful of recycling sites in the Russian capital. “For more than 20 years, trash didn’t worry anyone,” says Valeria Korosteleva, Sobirator’s head. “We have a lot of territory, so everything went straight to the dump.”
This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “A recycling revolution?”
Europe June 29th 2019
From the June 29th 2019 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Explore the editionDiscover more
Marine Le Pen spooks the bond markets
She threatens to bring down the French government, but also faces a possible ban from politics
The maths of Europe’s military black hole
It needs to spend to defend, but voters may balk
Ukraine’s warriors brace for a Kremlin surge in the south
Vladimir Putin’s war machine is pushing harder and crushing Ukrainian morale
Vladimir Putin fires a new missile to amplify his nuclear threats
The attack on Ukraine is part of a new era of missile warfare
A rise in antisemitism puts Europe’s liberal values to the test
The return of Europe’s oldest scourge
Once dominant, Germany is now desperate
As an election looms its business model is breaking down