Transition barriers to “zero waste” in the field of municipal solid waste management in the regions of the Northwestern federal district

The issue of municipal solid waste management remains relevant for most countries of the world including Russia. In this regard, the popularity of the concept “Zero Waste” has increased the key idea of which was to prevent waste from entering the environment. The purpose of this work is to determine the barriers to the transition to “Zero Waste” in the Russian regions in the case of the subjects of the Northwestern Federal District. In the course of the work, we have determined that the volume of municipal solid waste production in the federal district is growing and this phenomenon is not associated with population growth. The analysis of strategic policy directions in the fi eld of waste management has proved that the goal of reducing the waste production volume in most regions (except Saint Petersburg and the Murmansk Oblast) is not a priority, as required by the principles of the “Zero Waste” approach. We have identifi ed a number of cultural, market and regulatory barriers that prevent the start of the implementation of “Zero Waste” in the territory under consideration: poor awareness of the population about the rules of primary waste treatment when placing them in separate waste collection infrastructure facilities, as a result of their inadequate quality, preventing secondary raw materials producers from producing the necessary products without additional costs; lack of an alternative to non-recyclable packaging and state requirements for the possibility of its processing and for the content of secondary raw materials in it; the lack of suffi cient infrastructure for separate waste collection which is most acute in rural areas. Regarding the creation of the necessary conditions for the maintenance of “Zero Waste” by the population, we should give a special role to socially oriented non-profi t organizations, which are currently the key organizers of the infrastructure for separate garbage collection in Russia’s entities. The materials of the article may be useful to the executive authorities in the regions that carry out their activities in the fi eld of municipal solid waste management.