Armenia is underdeveloped in its waste management and recycling activities. According to the Statistical Committee of Armenia, organizations produced 55.2 million metric tons of waste in 2016, including mining waste. This amounts to about 18.5 tonnes per capita. According to the Waste Atlas, Armenia produces 368,618 tonnes of MSW per year or per capita. On May 4, 2018, the government modifications to relevant legislation aimed at strengthening the responsibility for proper waste management.
Landfills
Sixty landfills exist in Armenia. No waste sorting, recycling, or reuse takes place at any of them. Instead, garbage is dumped into a working area and then flattened using a bulldozer to create a layer of garbage thick. The Nubarashen landfill, located near Yerevan, is Armenia's largest waste disposal site. It receives almost all of the solid waste produced in the city of Yerevan and its suburbs, which is about 340 tons per day, or 102,000 tons per year. The site has accumulated over 7.5 million tons of domestic waste over 50 years. In 2018, a waste processing plant was scheduled for construction near Hrazdan city, which will allow for closure of 10 waste dumps.
Reuse and recycling
In recent years there have been several attempts initiated by public activists to address the waste management problem, such as the Toprak Petq Chi campaign, translates as "I don't need a plastic bag",' that targets single-use plastic bags. Also recently, some recycling initiatives have started to take shape. Namely, Apaga, also known as ApagaCommunity CJSC, offers a paid pickup service, mirroring similar projects in more developed countries, though in these countries, recycling programs are taxpayer sponsored. Apaga enables individuals and organizations who take responsibility for their waste and want to participate, to voluntarily pay for a pickup service and get some rewards in return in the forms of discounts for individuals and green public relations for organizations. In order to allow everyone to benefit from recycling, Apaga has also implemented new Smart Recycling Containers called SmartApaga Containers where anyone with their personal, unique QR code can dispose of their plastics and get ApagaCoins to exchange for rewards from their rewards partners.
The municipal government of Yerevan, capital of Armenia, has made attempts to solve the problem for the city with a long term development plan, which includes three main phases:
In 2014, an international tender was announced for garbage collection. Two waste management companies were chosen: a Lebanese company called Sanitek, who later opened a operations branch in Yerevan; and two Armenian/Swedish Companies called Ecogroup and LL Miliconsult.
According to the municipal government of Yerevan, the next step is to introduce waste sorting and recycling practices with projects that meet European Union standards and regulations.
