Waste Management Outlook for Mountain Regions

A waste dump close to Kravchenko, a village 18km north of Sochi, was due to be closed several years prior to the games. Due to the construction boom that occured as Sochi prepared to host the Olympics, locals say the waste dump grew vertiginously. Photo © AbbasAttilay/RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty

Disasters can reveal shortcomings

neglecting risks from previous operations. In addition, loopholes in legislation and weak enforcement mechanisms provide the means for illegal or illicit activities. In the European Union, mineral waste is one of the largest waste streams, generating 63 per cent of total waste in the 28 EU countries in 2012 (Eurostat, 2015). A number of EU countries have been taken to court for failure to comply with EU legislation on mining waste. Romania, one of the countries that makes up the Carpathian mountain range, is struggling to deal with abandoned tailing ponds, including the Bosneag tailing pond. The European Commission took Romania to court for failure to comply with European legislation on mining waste (European Commission, 2014). Armenia, a mountain country in the South Caucasus, has been carrying out mining activities for decades. However, these activities are also associated with persistent environmental transboundary concerns and risks. The failure to enforce environmental legislation continues to allow unscrupulous actors to manipulate the reporting of mining waste quantities and qualities, and disregard safety and security issues – creating the potential for interstate tensions (Stefes andWeingartner, 2015).

At times, disasters or accidents can trigger investigations and lead to the discovery of the illegal trade in waste, informal dumping or obsolete storage sites. In 2013, an extreme weather event triggered the flooding of the Tskhenistskali River in northern Georgia, close to the village of Tsana. The flood washed away the wall of a waste burial site containing over 50,000 tons of arsenic waste material – a by-product of the smelting of metal ores. The arsenic waste material was stored on the site of an old mining factory that had ceased operation in the early 1990s (UNEP, OSCE, UNDP, 2016). Often, developing countries or countries in transition lack the financial resources to map out and/or remediate hazardous waste sites, posing serious risks to the environment and human health.

The Extractives industry (Oil, gas, minerals)

The extractive industry (oil, gas, metals and minerals) produces large amounts of waste, some of it hazardous. In these circumstances sound and safe waste management is particularly important. Criminal behaviour may involve breaching environmental and safety regulations for existing activities, or

81