Table 9: Annual volume (m3), by use and disposal, of hazardous wastes in Azerbaijan
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
Total quantity of hazardous wastes
1689,
6
1644,
7
1594,
5
1613,3
1717,
5
1764,
5
Quantity of originated hazardous
wastes
10,4
24,3
131,8
140,0
185,4
297,0
Quantity of utilized hazardous wastes
5.0
4,8
18,7
5,5
3,6
6,3
Quantity
of
disposed
hazardous
wastes
1,2
8.6
10,4
58,4
37,1
113,9
As example of these wastes can serve wastes containing vanadium, nickel and its compounds –
27,330 tons; oil cuttings – 22,355.6 tons; wastes containing mercury – 0.3 tons; acid gudrones
– 3418 tons etc. While a portion of the hazardous wastes are transported to landfills, the
remaining portion is kept in the premises of enterprises. The studies conducted by the Ministry
of Ecology and Natural Resources show that storage conditions of industrial wastes in the
enterprises do not meet the environmental norms and standards in most cases. Moreover,
incorrect or sometimes incomplete accounting of originated wastes in a number of entities leads
to inaccuracy in overall statistical report indicators.
Another important aspect in waste management is their cross-border transport. With the view of
performing import, export and transit shipment operations of hazardous wastes in the Republic
of Azerbaijan in accordance with relevant legislation or preventing illegal import or export of
hazardous wastes to/from the country, in compliance with the requirements of the “Regulations
for the trans-boundary movement of hazardous waste” approved with Cabinet of Ministers
Decision No. 167, dated 25 July 2008, and Basel Convention “on the Control of Trans-
boundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal”, with the consent of the
Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Azerbaijan and under the permission of the Ministry of
Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the list of the hazardous wastes
prohibited from importing to the Republic of Azerbaijan was developed and submitted to the
State Customs Committee in order to regulate the transit, burial and disposal of the hazardous
wastes which are impossible to recycle safely. Such actions have a significant importance in
enforcement of import and export of hazardous wastes.
At present, improvement of sorting and movement system of solid wastes, employment of new
utilization technologies, establishment of modern regional landfills are among the main
priorities for improving domestic waste management and eliminating generated problems.
Currently, one of the priority areas of the environmental policy of the State is to eliminate the
problems, which have been created by domestic wastes over long time, improve management
system in accordance with international requirements, efficiently utilize domestic wastes and
protect environment and human health. Adoption of state programs, issuance of decrees and
decisions, as well as development of advanced projects for improving this system is the
evidence of the attention of the State to the problem.
One of the big initiatives of the state in domestic waste management in the country is creation
of “Tamiz Shahar” (“Clean City) Open Joint Stock Company established by relevant Decree of
the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan on “Improvement of management of domestic
wastes in Baku city. The Company is dealing with neutralization and disposal of all solid
wastes generated in the territory of Baku city. Balakhani city waste disposal landfill and other
domestic wastes landfills located in Surakhani and Garadagh areas are handed over to the
management of the Company. A power plant is built in the territory of Balakhani by French
company CNIM with the capacity of incineration of 500 thousand tons of domestic wastes to
generate 230 mln kw/h electricity annually.
One of such projects was “Solid Domestic Waste Management and Improvement of in
Azerbaijan” jointly developed by Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources and United
Nations Development Program. Database was in the framework of the Project for putting in
information on waste management, employment of machinery and technology for their
transportation, on their content and quantity, storage conditions and collection (gathering), on
environmental legislation, regulatory acts and other issues, as well as for processing and
updating and transmitting these data to the users.
Atmospheric pollution is currently being monitored by the National Environmental Monitoring
Department of Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources (MENR), and the Sanitary-
Epidemiology Centre of Ministry of Health Atmospheric emissions.
Protection of atmosphere is governed by the laws on environmental protection (1999), and
protection of atmospheric air (2001). Both laws define framework principles of all regulatory
documents and monitoring mechanisms related to environment. In accordance with the law,
norms are established for enterprises and vehicles and on all polluting sources in the territory of
the country 3816 of the registered 12 374 stationary sources polluting atmospheric air are
network sources. Emissions of vehicles to the atmosphere are calculated according to fuel
consumption. Air quality monitoring is implemented in 8 cities and 25 monitoring stations
(Baku-8, Ganja-5, Sumgait-3, Mingachevir-4, Shirvan-1, Lenkoran-1, Sheki-1 and
Nakhichevan-2) based on 18 parameters. In the country 70% of atmospheric air pollution falls
to the share of Baku and 30% of Mingachevir, Shirvan and Sumgait.
The quality of atmosphere is monitored by the National Environmental Monitoring Department
of Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources (MENR), and Sanitary-Epidemiology Centre of
Ministry of Health. After being analysed the data of National Hydrometeorology Department
received in its regional analytic laboratories and in 17 monitoring stations in other cities are
collected in the database, and communicated to other interested ministries and entities. On the
basis of this data the State Committee on Statistic publishes an annual edition “Environment in
Azerbaijan”. Each station carries out the calculation of sulphur dioxide (SO
2
), nitrogen dioxide
(NO
2
) and carbon (C), and some of them calculate other pollutants as well, such as
formaldehyde, ammonia, chlorine, mercury or furfural. The examples are taken and analysed 3
times in a day and pollutions are calculated on the basis of daily concentration. The number of
emissions released from the stationary sources has been decreased two times during 2000-2012
years.
Among the reasons of decrease of emissions from stationary sources are the employment of
new machinery and technologies in manufacturing enterprises, especially in oil and gas refinery
plants, replacement of black (heavy) oil with gas in the field of power generation and other
measures. The reason of increased emissions from vehicles is related to the increased number
of vehicles and lack of the desired level of the road infrastructure. Due to density of population
and since number of old vehicles (older than 10 years) exceeds 60% of the total number of
vehicles in Baku city, waste volume is extremely increased. It is necessary to conduct reforms
in this sphere considering the intensive increase of the number of vehicles.
The emissions from stationary sources to the atmosphere have been significantly reduced,
although emissions from vehicles have increased (see Table 10 below). One of the reasons for
lower emissions from stationary sources is the employment of more efficient technologies in
manufacturing enterprises (especially in oil and gas refinery plants) and the replacement of
black (heavy) oil with gas in the field of power generation. The reason for increased emissions
from vehicles is related to the increased number of vehicles and poor state of the road
infrastructure.