Economical and environmentally friendly

A new complex near Gomel will allow doubling the level of extraction of secondary material resources

During the ceremonial launch of artesian water from underground sources to provide Minsk with water supply on January 10th, the President of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko, spoke on the necessity of recycling all waste and obtaining maximum resources from it. For this purpose, a project is being implemented in Belarus’ capital city to reconstruct the facilities of the waste processing plant at the Trostenetsky municipal solid waste landfill. In addition, the construction of a new Gomel regional complex for the management of solid municipal waste is expected to be completed in 2026. This facility will meet the needs of the regional centre and nearby districts in waste processing, while efforts will be made to maximise resource recovery — not only by increasing the percentage of secondary material resources extracted but also opening several mini-production facilities.

At the construction site

The city has not seen such a large-scale construction project involving specialists from various parts of the country before, as noted by Sergei Pavlyuchek, the foreman of construction unit No. 243 at the Gomel DSK house-building plant, “The complex will occupy nearly 40 hectares. Working on such a project in the Year of Improvement is doubly honourable, as part of the products produced here will be used for road surfacing and enhancing green spaces. During the five-year period focused on quality, we will approach our work with particular attention!” 

Building on time 

A vast area of 38 hectares has been allocated for the future complex, located eight kilometres from Gomel. The existing municipal solid waste landfill, which has served the half-million-strong city for over fifty years, occupies about 15 hectares. Currently, the future complex — with its numerous sophisticated metal structures — is only just discernible.  
“Construction began in 2023, but we have mainly been engaged in preparatory work: clearing the forest, uprooting, and vertical planning,” explained Aleksandr Goncharov, General Director of Gomel DSK.  
Gomel DSK is the general contractor for the project, where more than 60 pieces of machinery and over 150 people are currently working. The exact completion date is not superstitiously disclosed by specialists, who only mention the year — the complex is expected to be ready in 2026. Aleksandr Goncharov added, “Construction and installation work is currently 45 to 50 percent complete. There are certainly challenges — for instance, due to weather conditions. However, the DSK team and our contractors are prepared to meet the deadline set.”

Each type has its purpose  

Valery Tkachev, Director of the Spetskommuntrans municipal unitary enterprise, is conducting a tour of the future complex, “Here will be the unloading area — a future workshop is being built, where three conveyors will sort waste using magnetic and pneumatic separators. Human involvement is minimal, which means fewer workers are needed compared to the existing facilities.”   
The sorting plant in the suburbs currently processes only one-fifth of the 150,000 tonnes of waste from the regional centre each year. The capacity of the new plant will be 220,000 tonnes per year. Waste will be brought there from Gomel and six districts: Gomel, Vetka, Loyev, Dobrush, Chechersk, and Rechitsa. The new facility has a plan for each type of waste, as pointed out by Valery Tkachev, “Behind me, installations for aerobic composting, where organic waste will go, are being constructed. It will be composted at an accelerated rate, within three months. Conditions for this are created through air blowing, specific temperature, and humidity regimes. Composting will also be done separately. The collected foliage will be used for covering the landfill — we expect to produce about 50,000 tonnes of this technogenic soil per year. Additionally, we will try to use 9,000 tonnes of organic material at the green spaces of Gomel.” 
For bulky waste, there will also be a dedicated shredder and opportunities for reuse. Wood waste will be turned into chips for the facility’s own boiler, while brick and concrete waste will be used as backfill for municipal and regional needs. After sorting, the remaining waste — non-recyclable or heavily contaminated materials — will be converted into pre-RDF (refuse-derived fuel). 
It is planned to transport this to Mogilev and convert it into RDF, primarily for cement plants and metallurgical furnaces. There, it is possible to burn waste derived fuel at high temperatures, which reduces the amount of harmful substances in emissions. 
The plans are ambitious, with some aspects still under development, yet the new complex is ready to address both economic and environmental challenges, as emphasised by Valery Tkachev, “If everything planned is implemented, the waste utilisation rate at this facility will be around 65 percent. For comparison: this level currently stands at about 34 percent.” 

BELTA

By Olga Valchenko