MOSCOW, February 6. /TASS/. Russians believe that landfills and air pollution are the major environmental issues the country is facing, the All-Russia Public Opinion Research Center said in a statement.

"As for the most pressing environmental issues, respondents mention air pollution (22%), garbage dumps (16%), pollution of rivers and lakes (13%), untimely garbage collection (11%), low tap water quality (6%) and problems related to landscaping in parks and forests (6%)," the statement reads.

While speaking about how the situation in the place where they live has changed in the past five years, 23% of those surveyed said that the environmental situation had improved, while 31% said it had deteriorated. The poll’s participants blame it either on the local authorities (30%) or on the regional government (23%). At the same time, 21% realize that common people also have a role to play in environment protection, the pollster noted.

Meanwhile, as many as 74% of respondents have heard about reforms going on in the waste management sector but only 24% of those polled demonstrated a high level of awareness. Russians believe that the reform must primarily be aimed at developing waste sorting systems (27%), increasing tariffs (19%) and creating a centralized so-called Unified Regional Operator (7%).

The nationwide telephone poll involving 1,600 respondents was conducted on January 15, 2019. The margin of error does not exceed 2.2% at a 95% confidence level.