You're reading: GreenCo to occupy one third of Ukrainian solid household waste market by 2016

The GreenCo group of companies, the largest national company on the solid household waste market, plans to increase its market share from 9% to 30% in the next five years, First Deputy Board Chairperson at OJSC GreenCo Olena Bilanchuk has said.

"As of late 2010 the GreenCo’s share of the Ukrainian solid household waste market stood at 9%. According to our strategic plans, the company wants to increase its share to 30% in five years," she told the press in Kyiv on Thursday.

Bilanchuk also forecast that the solid household waste market would grow by 4% in 2011 compared to 2010, to 52 million cubic meters.

"Each year the solid household waste market is growing, as the packaging market is expanding. In 2005 it was 46 million cubic meters, in 2010 it was 50 million cubic meters and for 2011 we predict 52 million cubic meters," she said.

She said that today GreenCo is realizing a project on separated waste collection in five cities of Ukraine – Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk and Ivano-Frankivsk. The company has 5,600 containers for separate waste collection serviced by 12 garbage removal trucks.

Over the period of the project’s implementation, the company has invested over UAH 13 million, including UAH 3 million in 2011. The payback period for the projects ranges from three to five years, depending on the city.

"We’ve invested around UAH 3 million this year and today we do not plan additional investment [of our own]. We’re working on [the attraction of investment]. We want to find investors and grants," Bilanchuk said.

"In 2010 we hit a record for separated waste collection – almost 20% of total volume we remove. In 2011 we plan to increase separated waste collection share to 30%," she added.

She said that in 2010 GreenCo removed 1 million cubic meters of separated waste out of 5 million cubic meters removed by the company during a year. Today around 3% of waste is being sorted in Ukraine or around 1.5 million cubic meters per year, she said.

Bilanchuk said that this year the company does not plan to introduce separated waste collection in new cities and will focus on the expansion of its presence in the above-mentioned five cities.

The director of the improvement, public service and city electric transport at the Regional Development, Construction and Utility Economy Ministry, Oleksandr Ihnatenko, said that in 2010 separated waste collection was introduced in 53 cities and towns of Ukraine, and today the number of cities and towns grew to 130.

"Now the ministry sent a letter to the Ecology and Natural Recourses Ministry… so that ecological inspectors checks and fined officials who have delays with the introduction of separated waste collection," he said.

East Europe Foundation Acting President Viktor Liakh told the press that the foundation has allocated some UAH 500,000 for projects on separated waste collection.

OJSC Greenco was founded in 2003 by Viktor Rzhotkevych, who before 2003 was first deputy head of the state committee for state reserve and board chairman of state-run Ukrresources company and Oleksandr Hryban, former deputy head of Ukrresources. Rzhotkevych owned a 60% stake and Hryban 40%.

In March 2009, the Rzhotkevych’s share reached 0%, while Hryban’s share rose to 100%, and in January 2010 Cypriot Cleantale Limited fully owned the company.

In 2005 the company launched its first waste sorting plant in Ukraine.