In accordance with the Concept, by 2030 the waste recycling proportion should be increased to 40%, by 2050 - to 50%.

Household solid waste

Annually in Kazakhstan about 4.5-5 million tons of household solid waste (HSW) are generated. The HSW is sorted out and processed at the factories in the cities of Astana, Shymkent and Zhanaozen, as well as enterprises, mainly of small and medium-sized businesses.  

Proportion of the recycled and disposed HSW for 3rd Quarter 2020 was 15.8%.

At present, the works to create "hubs" for the recyclables collection and accumulation, installation of HSW sorting lines in those regions where there is no infrastructure for their separate collection and sorting are in the process.

In the republic, out of the 204 cities and districts, a separate collection at different stages has been introduced in 94 and sorting - in 80 settlements. At the same time, separate waste collection and sorting is being introduced both in large cities and districts. Over a thousand jobs have been created at the sorting complexes. According to the results of 10 months of 2020 the largest number of settlements, wherein separate HSW collection and sorting has been introduced so far is the Karaganda region (15).

*Based on city administration (akimat) information.

According to the results of 10 months of 2020, the largest number of HSW recycling, sorting enterprises is located in Aktobe (28), Kostanay (26), North Kazakhstan (21), the smallest number is in Atyrau and Akmola (6) regions.

For the 3rd quarter of 2020, 10,919 clunker units were received at the collection points. The 17 855 clunker units were transferred for recycling; the 16.6 thousand tons were recycled.

The EPR mechanism creates an infrastructure for HSW separate collection. To date, a total of 2 321 containers for the collection of mercury lamps, 12 196 containers for separate collection, 150 containers for electrical equipment have been installed. 147 recyclables reception points were created.

The EPR mechanism has been mostly used by city administration (akimats) of Astana city and Almaty region. The work of akimats of West Kazakhstan, Aktobe and Atyrau regions is poor. There is no interaction with the EPR at the akimats of Turkestan region.

Since the beginning (November 21, 2016) of the old cars reception program, 134,584 units of old cars have been received from the population, which stimulated business, and contributed to the emergence of new enterprises.

HSW landfills

At the end of 3rd quarter of 2020, the number of HSW disposal facilities in the republic amounted to 3,292, of which 601 (18.2%) comply with the environmental and sanitary standards.

The smallest share of landfills that meet the environmental standards is in the West Kazakhstan (0.96% of the total number of landfills - 208), Pavlodar (1.49% of 336 landfills) and Kyzylorda (2.76% of 145 landfills) regions. All available landfills in the Astana (1 landfill), Shymkent (1 landfill) and Zhambyl region (162 landfills) comply with the environmental standards.

* Based on city administration (akimat) information

Elimination of spontaneous landfills

Space monitoring of waste disposal sites has been established jointly with JSC “NC“Kazakhstan Gharysh Sapary” an Interdepartmental Action Plan was developed to take systemic measures to eliminate and prevent spontaneous landfills jointly with interested state bodies; space monitoring of waste disposal sites has been initiated and “Taza Kazakhstan" raids were carried out, leaflets and booklets were distributed to the population in order to develop ecological culture, the MENR has created a hotline, since July, 2020, there were 1,099 applications received.

Following the space monitoring the 8884 unauthorized waste disposal sites were revealed, including 7147 dumps (2019 and 2020) that were liquidated  that is 80% (2019-28% 2018-14%).

The largest waste disposal accumulation is observed in Akmola region - 1527 , of which 742 landfills were liquidated - 49% , Almaty region - 688, of which 307 landfills were liquidated - 45%, Turkestan region - 404, of which 122 landfills were liquidated - 30% , WKR - 419, of which 204 landfills were liquidated - 49%, Pavlodar region - 488, of which 54 landfills were liquidated - 11%.

Projects construction plans for 2020

On the territory of Ili district of Almaty region the LLP « Waste Energy Kazakhstan » has planned to build a full cycle capacity of 220 thousand tons per year and an organic waste plant processing plant by the LLP «ZORBIOGAZ». Those projects are the winners of the auction for the selection of BioES projects by the Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Industrial waste

There has been accumulated about 31.6 billion tons of industrial waste. About 1 billion tons are produced annually. These are mainly man-made mineral formations, including overburden and ash (70% of the total), waste from the manufacturing industry (10% of the total), and other activities (20%). The work to recycle them is underway.

The share of recycled and recovered industrial waste in the 3rd quarter of 2020 is 29.7%.

*At the time of this report preparation, information on the waste processing by the Akmola, Almaty, Kyzylorda regions, Astana and Shymkent cities was not provided.

The remaining volume of accumulated (about 680 million tons) waste is annually disposed at the tailing dumps and landfills.

The taken measures:

In 2018, Aluminum of Kazakhstan JSC placed 13.3 million tons of overburden (37% of the total volume accumulated) in the mined-out area of the quarries.

JSC "NC" KazAvtoZhol "has used ash and slag waste in the road construction as a substitute for natural stone materials.

Persistent organic pollutants (POP)

Since the Soviet times, the country has accumulated a colossal volume of POPs- containing waste: 40.3 thousand pieces of PCB-containing oil transformers and capacitors, 82.6 tons and 4 100 liters of obsolete prohibited, unusable pesticides, 3.7 thousand tons buried pesticides, 13.5 thousand pesticide containers.

In order to resolve the issue, the Ministry, together with UNIDO, is carrying out a project, within which it is planned to transfer a hazardous waste disposal facility to Kazakhstan free of charge in 2021.

Plans for 2021:

1. Development and approval of the Waste Management Program;
2. Holding an auction for the selection of energy waste disposal projects.