BARANOVICHI, 22 March (BelTA) – Cost-conscious waste treatment can make Belarus 50% richer, President Alexander Lukashenko said as he met with senior officials of the Baranovichi municipal and district administrations on 22 March, BelTA informs.
“When I was mulling over this matter, I arrived at a firm conclusion that if secondary resources were approached in a more prudent way, we could be 50% richer. In other words, we are stripping ourselves of half of what we could have. Waste treatment is worth the effort and we should do it. All countries are zealously promoting their waste processing industry, because waste sorting is a profit-making business,” Alexander Lukashenko said.
The president mentioned Switzerland as a case in point: “They do not manufacture glass using the traditional technology as we do. They produce all their glass from waste glass.”
According to the head of state, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is ready to support Belarus’ efforts to promote waste processing. “It is ready to grant us many loans under a small interest rate for our roads, water, deferrization and waste processing. It is good that they came here and we need to go ahead with this matter,” Alexander Lukashenko is convinced.