Land reclamation is a set of works to restore territories damaged by the accumulation of waste, industrial activity, or other environmental harm. In Nizhny Novgorod Region, reclamation became systematic under the national project "Ecology," implemented since the late 2010s, and has covered a number of large sites — both municipal landfills and contaminated industrial areas.

Reclamation sites in the region

Among the largest sites is the Shuvalovo landfill, the biggest in Nizhny Novgorod Region; the cost of its elimination approached 2 billion rubles.[1] Landfills on Moscow Highway in Nizhny Novgorod, in Volodarsk, and in Pervomaysk have also been reclaimed. Work at the landfill in the Igumnovo area in Dzerzhinsk was nearing completion as of 2024; the cost of reclaiming the Igumnovo municipal solid waste landfill was estimated at 900 million rubles.[1][2]

Reclamation is also provided for within the redevelopment of industrial sites: in particular, the territory planning project for the former "Varya" oil and lubricants plant, covering 87.3 hectares in the area of Sormovskoye Highway, includes reclamation of a contaminated section of the Burnakovskaya Lowland.

Technologies and methods

Two approaches have traditionally been used: removing the waste to operating landfills, and sealing the landfill mass with a geomembrane while building systems to drain leachate and biogas. The second method requires multimillion-ruble annual budget expenditures to maintain the engineering systems after the work is completed.[1]

The Nizhny Novgorod company "CityLux," founded in 2014, was the first in Russia to apply a separation method in reclaiming the Shuvalovo landfill: the landfill mass, consisting mainly of construction waste, was sorted into fractions directly on site. Soil (the loose part) and the solid coarse fraction were separated with specialized machinery; the separated soil was processed according to the technological regulations in line with the state environmental review and turned into safe reclamation soil, which was laid back on the site of the former landfill. In the final stage, grass was sown over the fertile layer. This approach eliminates the need for subsequent upkeep of the territory at the expense of the budget and allows it to be used as a recreational zone.[1] The separation method was later used in reclaiming the landfills on Moscow Highway, in Volodarsk, and in Igumnovo.[1]

Participants and resources

To carry out the work, CityLux deployed about 200 people and roughly 50 units of equipment. The company works both on federal sites of accumulated environmental damage under the national project "Ecology" and on unauthorized landfills in the municipal okrugs and districts of Nizhny Novgorod.[1]

Sources

  1. Kommersant (Volga Region) — Andrey Tovt: How to Rehabilitate Landfills (archive)
  2. NIA "Nizhny Novgorod" — The "MAG-1" Municipal Solid Waste Landfill Opened in Nizhny Novgorod Region on June 28, Nizhny Novgorod News (archive)
Materials from the following articles were used (1)

Approval of the Redevelopment Project for the Territory of the Varya Oil and Lubricants Plant