The Belarusian Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Ministry plans to get a grant from the World Bank to accomplish projects for recycling solid municipal waste in the Belarusian towns of Kobrin and Mosty, representatives of the Ministry told BelTA.

The pilot projects provide for setting up an integral system to recycle domestic waste and extract secondary material resources.

Collection and processing of recyclable materials is an urgent problem in many parts of the country. At present Soligorsk District tops the list of the areas where the problem has been resolved. As much as 21,800 tonnes of recyclable materials was collected there in H1 2011. Meanwhile, Krasnopolye District and Kostyukovichi District are lagging behind with only 136 tonnes and 198 tonnes collected.

In H1 2011 as much as 417,900 tonnes of recyclable materials was collected in Belarus. The figure includes 100,500 tonnes of paper (pasteboard), 25,900 tonnes of glass, 4,100 tonnes of textiles, 8,600 tonnes of worn-out tires, 12,500 tonnes of plastic waste, 153,700 tonnes of construction waste, and 198,100 tonnes of bituminous concrete.