Circular economy ‘Made in Germany’
Waste management that really works in Ukraine: contributing not only to the environment, but also to the country's prospects for European integration.
What do you do with your waste if there is no segregation, no collection system and no disposal logistics? The Poltava region in central Ukraine has faced this question for a long time. Since 2019, however, a functioning waste management system has been introduced here, bringing real environmental improvement, strengthening municipal infrastructure and boosting public confidence. The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH is supporting the establishment of an inter-municipal waste management association.
Project activities have continued to run successfully, despite Russia’s war of aggression that has been raging in Ukraine since February 2022. Even during a war, everyday problems need to be addressed – and there is still the will to move closer to Europe. Four local authorities joined forces to set up a municipal waste enterprise called EcoService2022, which has since been busy developing operational processes, training technical staff and building infrastructure such as waste collection points, sorting plants and landfills. Today, for the first time, it offers segregated waste collection and sorting, and a structured recycling system, resulting in a visible change in the day-to-day work of municipalities. Oleksandr Kotenko, director of EcoService2022, sees many different benefits in the project. ‘Firstly, it helps the environment,’ he says. But the economic aspect is equally important: ‘We’ve created new jobs, and will create even more in the future!’
300 tonnes of waste recycled
GIZ and this project are both part of the Export Initiative Environmental Protection, in which the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Climate Protection, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMUKN) creates an enabling framework for the use of German-made environmental technologies. This has practical implications at municipal level. In the space of two years, the initiative's waste collection vehicle brought in more than 300 tonnes of secondary raw materials. These are raw materials that are extracted through recycling. In Ukraine's troubled economy, those materials are used to manufacture new items made from glass, plastic, metal and paper that directly benefit people in 154 villages in the region. The German economy also benefits, as many of the technologies being used come from Germany. The main focus of the Export Initiative Environmental Protection is on transferring a system that works, not the export of individual products.
Long-term partnerships
The Export Initiative is creating conducive conditions by providing advice on specific legal regulations for waste as well as training and targeted matchmaking with German technology companies. This means that environmental technologies ‘made in Germany’ can achieve long-term results. Cooperation with partners such as the German RETech network provides access to tried-and-tested expertise, while opening up market opportunities for German companies. The activities in Ukraine focus on forming cooperation arrangements, creating a regional strategy and raising awareness of environmental issues – so far with success. When it founded EcoService2022, the Export Initiative Environmental Protection paved the way for a partnership with the Bergischer Abfallwirtschaftsverband (BAV) in Germany. The activities funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) as part of the utility partnership between EcoService2022 and BAV complement the project's successes to date. Joint study trips, knowledge transfer and the provision of additional containers benefit the partners directly. The example of Ukraine shows how project activities financed by BMUKN and BMZ and coordinated by GIZ build on and complement each other. Germany's involvement in Ukraine thus achieves a greater impact overall, which in turn lays the foundations for post-war reconstruction and for further convergence with Europe.
