OREANDA-NEWS. August 17, 2010.  A big Italian company would like to invest in the construction of new household waste treatment facilities in Gomel.

The parties consider a possibility to build a second line to process household waste using the innovative high-temperature processing technology at the Gomel sorting and biomechanical treatment plant. “This technology allows more advanced waste treatment which minimizes the amount of waste that has to be disposed,” Olga Sazonova informed.

The cost of the project has not been finalized yet. Italian investors are ready to finance up to 70% of the construction works. A delegation of Belarusian specialists will soon go to Italy to study the operation of such lines in the country. The delegation will include representatives of the Gomel City Executive Committee, the oblast committee of natural resources and environmental protection and housing and utility services. The Belarusian experts will study a possibility to introduce this technology in Belarus, after that a final decision will be made.

At present, the Gomel sorting and biomechanical treatment plant can process about 180,000 tonnes of household waste per annum.

Under the national environmental protection plan, eleven waste treatment facilities were to be constructed in Belarus in the current five-year period. However, the construction of some of them was delayed as a result of the global financial crisis. Foreign investments are expected to accelerate the construction of new waste treatment facilities.