According to official figures, hundreds of waste-processing facilities have been built across Russia, but in practice some of them have drawn complaints from residents over pollution risks and fears that they will become ordinary landfills. This is illustrated by the cases of Koryazhma in the Arkhangelsk region and the area around the Neva complex near Moscow.
Koryazhma
A waste-processing complex has been under construction near Nizovka station since the summer of 2023. The project is being implemented by the regional government-owned Arkhangelsk Environmental Operator. After work began, local residents say a pit filled with landfill water was drained, and the layer that had prevented leachate from reaching groundwater may then have been damaged.
“I drank it, and it burned my throat and esophagus,” said retired biologist Galina Khlybova, who lives nearby, describing water from her well after the events of August 3, 2023. She said laboratory testing showed elevated petroleum products.
Residents say the Investigative Committee declined to open a case. Activists argue that the facility, designed for 70,000 tons of waste per year, will not be able to process the declared 55% of incoming waste and will instead expand the existing dump. By early 2024, 7,000 people had signed a petition against the project, and more than 500 attended a demonstration.
Lawyer Alexander Kozenkov said a new collective lawsuit challenging the environmental review is due to be heard in Moscow on December 17. In his estimate, the cost of three regional projects has risen from 6 to 22 billion rubles, while the Koryazhma facility is now expected to be completed in March 2026.
Moscow Region
In the area between Lytkino and Povarovo, the Neva waste-processing complex, with a declared capacity of 400,000 tons a year, opened in 2021. Complaints about odor appeared in 2022, and by 2025, local residents said emissions were affecting villages more than 10 kilometers away, as well as Zelenograd and Alabushevo.
Activists say air monitoring detected elevated levels of hydrogen sulfide, methane, formaldehyde, butanol, acetaldehyde, mercaptan, and sulfur dioxide. They also criticize regional supervisory bodies, saying officials continue to publicly describe the complex as safe despite numerous complaints.