VZCZCXRO3766
RR RUEHLMC
DE RUEHUM #0599/01 2920637
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 190637Z OCT 07
FM AMEMBASSY ULAANBAATAR
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1583
INFO RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 5804
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 2686
RUEHUL/AMEMBASSY SEOUL 2978
RUEHDN/AMCONSUL SYDNEY 0032
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 0184
RUEHSH/AMCONSUL SHENYANG 0346
RUEHMO/AMEMBASSY MOSCOW 1931
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHDC
RHMFISS/HQ EPA WASHINGTON DC 0012
RUEHLMC/MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE CORP WASHINGTON DC 0745
RUEHRC/USDA FAS WASHDC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 ULAANBAATAR 000599 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/CM D.CITRON; OES/ENV-H. FINMAN 
EAP - INTERNATIONAL FOR M. ENGLE, M. BAILEY 
STATE PASS TO AID/ANE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON SENV PGOV SOCI EAID BTIO MG
SUBJECT: WE'RE TALKIN' TRASH: MONGOLIA TACKLES A MOUNTING SOLID 
WASTE DISPOSAL PROBLEM. 
 
Ref: 06 Ulaanbaatar 105 
 
¶1. SUMMARY. As Mongolia evolves into a consumerist, disposable 
society, its cities are increasingly becoming overrun by mounting 
piles of trash and other solid waste.  Garbage sometimes goes 
uncollected for months, especially in impoverished ger (yurt) 
districts, and Ulaanbaatar's single landfill is nearly full.  For 
over a decade, the waste collection and disposal system was 
neglected as the country staggered toward a market-based economy 
follow the collapse of the Communist system.  Since 2000, the 
Government of Mongolia (GOM) has actively sought to engage foreign 
donors to help find a solution.  In 2004 Japan's International 
Cooperation Agency (JICA) stepped in with a successful waste 
management improvement plan that has included upgrading 
Ulaanbaatar's landfill, providing funding for new sanitation trucks, 
developing collection plans and researching the location for a new 
landfill.  Only 3.7% of the city's waste is recycled (septel),but 
city officials hope to see the figure rise to 10% by 2010.  The GOM 
also hopes to install an incinerator and recycling plant, and hopes 
to boost capacity by sending more students overseas to study waste 
management, a field of study not offered by Mongolian universities. 
END SUMMARY 
 
Average Mongolian Produces 1kg of Trash Daily 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
¶2. According to the Ministry of Environment (MOE), Ulaanbaatar 
produces on average 250,000 metric tons of trash annually; 250 tons 
per day in summer and 560 tons per day in winter.  (Note: The 
seasonal increase is due almost entirely to ash waste from coal 
burning stoves, although a portion of the city's population also 
decamps to the countryside during the summer months.)  Ger 
districts, home to more than half of the capital's population, 
account for 48% of Ulaanbaatar's total annual waste output. 
Apartment complexes produce 32%; offices, shopping centers and 
restaurants 17%; and loose waste (everything else) 3%. Each urban 
dweller produces approximately 0.5 to 1 kg of waste everyday.  Only 
62% of all this waste makes it to a disposal site or is recycled 
(58% and 4%, respectively).  The remaining 38% is shunted off to the 
9 or 10 illegal dumping sites that have sprung up around the city or 
are simply tossed into streets or ravines. 
 
¶3. About 90% of the waste that does find its way to a legally 
recognized landfill is carted off to Ulaanbaatar's nearly full 
Ulaanchuluut open-pit landfill, located just 17 kilometers northwest 
of the city's center.  The landfill is nearly encircled by the 
expanding Bayankhoshuu ger district.  Some 50 area families now make 
their living as garbage pickers at the landfill. 
 
Booming Economy Means More Waste 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶4. Over the past decade, Mongolia's thriving economy has spawned a 
consumer lifestyle that has amplified the amount of waste it 
produces, particularly in Ulaanbaatar, a city of nearly 1 million 
people  (about 40% of Mongolia's population).  Moreover, the 
country's booming construction sector and expanding medical services 
have generated medical, hazardous and industrial waste that can no 
longer be disposed of by traditional means. 
 
Waste from Ger Districts Piles Up and Seeps In 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
¶4. 
¶5. Growing migration to ger areas around major cities has added to 
the garbage mix.  Ger districts suffer from inadequate sanitation 
services because they lack even basic infrastructure and are hard to 
reach.  Residents simply dump trash into the streets or alleyways 
where it collects in corners, holes or ravines, or is blown down 
into the city center.  The run-off from garbage seeps into the 
ground, threatening local wells, or uncollected garbage provides 
fuel for fire that regularly sweep through the wood and felt tent 
communities, killing scores of residents at a time. 
 
Coal ash waste from ger districts has also become a serious issue. 
On average, Ulaanbaatar's 150,000 gers burn 5 to 7 metric tons of 
 
ULAANBAATA 00000599  002 OF 004 
 
 
coal annually (about 40 to 50 lbs per day), though ger residents 
also burn tires, wood, cardboard boxes, and anything else to keep 
warm.  The resulting ash is piled outside gers or tossed into the 
street.  Nestled in a bowl between mountains, the smoke  blankets 
the city in a thick fog, hanging there for hours during still winter 
days.  (Note:  The Embassy abuts a ger district that is home to 
130,000 people, and some mornings visibility is barely 50 
meters.)morn.  While the city's coal-powered energy plants dispose 
of the non-airborne ash by turning it into concrete, no such plan 
has been introduced for ger ash waste.  Recently, Mongolia's Nuclear 
Energy Commission told Econoff that there are considerable levels of 
uranium embedded in much of Mongolia's coal, heightening concerns 
about the health risks of coal burning and proper ash disposal. 
According to city sanitation authorities, during cold periods, over 
60% of solid waste from ger districts is ash.  (Note:  In early 
2006, UB's Mayor claimed the burning of 4.7 million metric tons (MT) 
of brown coal for heating and electricity and 750,000 MT of 
petroleum for transportation spews some 260,000 MT of pollutants 
into UB's atmosphere, much of it at human-breathing level.) 
Waste Collection Woes Date to Early 1990s 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
¶6. Mongolia's current garbage predicament can be traced back to the 
early 1990s when state control over waste management collapsed, 
along with Mongolia's  centrally planned economy.  As part of free 
market reforms and the privatization of public services, the GOM 
introduced a fee-based waste collection system.  Licenses were 
issued to six (later nine) garbage collecting companies, only one of 
which was in private hands, to haul away trash in designated 
sub-districts within the city.  But the companies were understaffed, 
under-resourced and overwhelmed.  Sky-rocketing inflation and 
increasing poverty left few residents with the wherewithal to pay 
the collection fees. 
 
¶7. Eventually, a 100% collection rate during the socialist era gave 
way to a slapdash (and some say corrupt) waste collection system 
that led to garbage anarchy.   Apartment dwellers tossed trash from 
their windows, occasionally injuring passersby.  Courtyards around 
Ulaanbaatar became impromptu garbage dumps.  Even apartments 
fortunate enough to have garbage chutes saw a rise in fires, pest 
populations and unsanitary conditions as trash remained uncollected 
for months at a time.  Illegal open dump sites that sprang up around 
the city were also a source of fires and infestations. 
 
GOM Moves to Improve Waste Management 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶8. By the year 2000, the garbage crisis had reached critical 
proportions.  Parliament passed a flurry of laws to regulate 
industrial and domestic waste, as well as hazardous and medical 
waste, but lacked sufficient capacity to either enforce the laws or 
develop and implement effective waste management and reduction 
programs on their own.  Frustrated, the GOM looked to international 
donors for assistance. 
 
¶9. The Australian Government was the first to step to the plate with 
a donation of US$22.7 million for a services implementation project, 
much of which focused on waste management.  Funds went to supply 
solid waste collection units and "ancillaries and accessories." 
 
JICA's Master Plan for Waste Management in UB 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
¶10. Then, in 2004, the Japanese International Cooperation Agency 
(JICA) arrived with an ambitious project to entirely overhaul waste 
management practices.  Japan, by far Mongolia's largest aid donor, 
had succeeded with such waste management projects in other Asian 
countries.  JICA first worked to upgrade and fortify the 
Ulaanchuluut disposal site.  They built an on-site paved road, 
installed an enclosing bank, a storm water drain, gas removal 
facilities, a leachate treatment pond, and a control house with 
weigh station.  They also erected a heated garage for sanitation 
trucks and equipment and supplied a high-rise movable perimeter 
breeze-fence, to catch refuse that is propelled by strong winds. 
Finally, JICA developed a thorough waste disposal plan for the site 
that included re-shaping and slope trimming of the existing landfill 
 
ULAANBAATA 00000599  003 OF 004 
 
 
as well as soil covering. 
 
¶11. JICA also surveyed sites for a new landfill to replace 
Ulaanchuluut, which will reach full capacity by December 2008.  They 
settled on an area called Ikh Narangiin Enger, just one kilometer 
behind the Ulaanchuluut landfill.  The new site's sophistication 
will hopefully mean reduced health risks to the urban population. 
It will operate until 2020. Officials from the City Maintenance and 
Public Utilities Agency admitted that there is not yet any plan in 
place to deal with waste after that year. 
 
¶12. JICA then strengthened the capacity of the Solid Waste 
Management Department through the funding of staffing increases, and 
the revision of the fee system for solid waste collection.  Over the 
next two years, JICA will help fund the purchase of 50 new 
sanitation trucks to add to Ulaanbaatar's aging, mostly Russian-made 
fleet of 120, thereby allowing the city to expand collection efforts 
around the city. 
 
A Patchwork of Collection Systems 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶13. JICA also helped develop a patchwork of collection systems to 
deal with the unique challenges presented by UB's multifaceted urban 
landscape.   One such system, the "Bell Collection System," in which 
residents in apartments carry their trash to collection trucks three 
times per week, is by far the most successful.  The arrival of the 
truck is sometimes signaled by a horn or bell; hence the name. But 
many of the trucks donated through the JICA program lure residents 
with the sounds of a famous Japanese lullaby. 
 
¶14. Unfortunately, a lack of trucks and resources prohibits the bell 
system from being implemented city-wide and many apartment blocks 
still rely on traditional collection systems such as dust chutes and 
communal container collection systems.  Some areas are not serviced 
at all by sanitation trucks and have reverted to disposing of trash 
in illegal dumps or apartment courtyards and vacant lots. 
 
¶15. The dust chute collection system remains problematic because 
trucks can only haul away trash from these sites once a month.  Few 
landlords look after the chutes, which often clog and sometime burn. 
 It is also difficult for trucks to collect the garbage from the 
interiors of apartment trash rooms. 
 
¶16. The communal container collection system, where residents carry 
trash to a neighborhood waste container, is hindered by trash bins 
that damage easily.  Furthermore, the garbage cannot be collected in 
winter because it freezes, is set on fire to provide warmth for the 
homeless or is otherwise scattered by waste-pickers.  City 
sanitation trucks visit residential areas once a month.  City 
officials are working to increase their fleet of sanitation trucks 
in order to collect garbage more frequently. 
 
Increasing Sanitation Service to Ger Areas 
------------------------------------------- 
 
¶17. UB has beefed up service to ger areas with more frequent, 
regular sanitation visits.  A public awareness campaign calling on 
ger district residents to cover their waste has cut down on 
windswept refuse, and calls for communal help with loading garbage 
into sanitation trucks has produced excellent results.  Still, a 
scarcity of sanitation trucks makes regular visits to all ger areas 
difficult. 
 
Recycling Efforts 
------------------- 
 
¶18. The JICA/UB master plan for waste management envisions up to 10% 
of the city's trash being recycled annually with the help of 
education drive and the instillation of 134 recycling collection 
points throughout the city. (Note: Recylcing to be covered in 
septel.)  Currently only about 3.75% of all waste produced in 
Ulaanbaatar is recycled, thanks mostly to the efforts of a few 
hundred waste-pickers who scour the landfill or inner city trash 
containers.  JICA's project harnessed the work of waste-pickers by 
developing plans to introduce a recycling facility with a separation 
 
ULAANBAATA 00000599  004 OF 004 
 
 
site that will allow waste pickers to engage in their activities 
safely.  Unfortunately, for reasons that are not clear, that 
facility was never built.  The Ministry of Nature and Environment 
has established a working group to develop a draft law which imposes 
penalties on importers of non-recyclable packages and materials. 
The draft law is expected to be submitted to Parliament next year. 
 
¶19. In addition to JICA's efforts, the GOM has developed its own set 
of plans.  It recently established a special site for the disposal 
of medical and hazardous waste in the central aimag (province) of 
Tov, and is developing a pilot program further afield, in Khovd and 
Hovsgol aimags, that would create a template for each aimag to 
establish its own landfill. 
 
Incinerator, Recycling Plant and Capacity Building 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
 
¶20. Despite the tremendous progress made by JICA in strengthening 
Mongolia's waste management system, more work needs to be done.  The 
GOM has said it is still procuring a medium size incinerator, having 
rejected several offers from European companies because they were 
either economically unviable or comprised of faulty (or even 
dangerous) technology that the companies could not unload elsewhere. 
 The GOM would also like to build a small-scale recycling factory. 
Finally, there is a critical need to upgrade human capacity in the 
field of waste management.  Right now only two to three students 
head off to Japan each year to receive training in waste management. 
 At home, there is no real curriculum available, only a few courses 
offered at the technical university. 
 
Goldbeck