MOSCOW, June 20. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has promised to personally monitor progress in the implementation of the reform of garbage disposal and recycling. In this way he replied to a question from blogger Yekaterina Adushkina in the annual question-and-answer session.
During the program Putin was shown photographs of garbage heaps in the Rostov, Nizhni Novgorod and Sverdlovsk regions.
"It’s worth taking a closer look at these pictures and where they come from. I do hope that we will manage to restore order in the near future. Garbage disposal is not a very pleasant subject, but I will keep an eye on it myself, too," he said.
Putin believes that the results of implementing the garbage reform must be instantly seen.
"The people must see the result. This is not a situation where a 20-year delay will be possible. The people must see the results now," he said.
Putin recalled that Russia generated about 70 million tonnes of solid household waste a year, but nothing has been done so far to process the waste on the industrial basis.
"Dumps have kept growing ever since the breakup of the Soviet Union. What makes the situation still worse is that our society has largely turned itself into a consumer society. New packaging materials have emerged. Alongside packaging paper and cardboard there are much plastic materials. These are an enormous problem. We will address this issue, of course," Putin said, adding that the pictures shown to him were a disgrace and promised probes into the state of affairs in the mentioned territories of Russia.