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Komi Region's 15 unauthorized landfills to be cleaned

Additionally, the region will cleanup another 11 landfills on its own or during environmental events

SYKTYVKAR, April 16. /TASS/. Experts plan to cleanup 15 unauthorized landfills in the Komi Region in 2025, or 11% of all the illegal landfills there - 132 landfills taking 125 hectares, the region's Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment told TASS.

"As of early April, we have registered 132 unauthorized landfills on forest lands, taking 125 hectares. Under the state environment program for 2025, the region's budget allocates 6.358 million rubles ($77,254) to cleanup unauthorized landfills on forest lands. This money will be used to cleanup four landfills - 930 tons," the ministry told TASS.

Additionally, the region will cleanup another 11 landfills on its own or during environmental events.

On Komi's forest lands remain 18 unauthorized landfills with signs of accumulated environmental damage. Materials on them have filed with Rosprirodnadzor (the environmental watchdog), and their examination is due in 2026.

Earlier, the ministry said the regional budget allocated in 2024, for the first time, 6 million rubles ($73,000) to cleanup landfills that had been growing for decades in forests near populated areas. In 2023, the region had 220 such locations, in the middle of 2024 - 149. Specialists have managed to reverse the trend and stop their growth. In 2024, during the Water of Russia national campaign, 2,000 cubic meters of waste was collected at 486 km of the coastal zone. During the Clean Arctic campaign, volunteers collected almost 73 tons of old tires and 18 cubic meters of other waste.

Komi is a largest forest region in Russia, where 87% is forests, mainly of valuable species - spruce and pine.

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