In the Sverdlovsk Region, a forest is being destroyed to make way for a giant industrial landfill.

Recently, residents of Sverdlovsk Oblast approached me with a desperate plea to help protect the nature of their homeland. They say that PJSC “Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant” (PNTZ) intends to clear‑cut 310 hectares of forest to build a gigantic industrial landfill. 

Local activists warn that this could disrupt the entire district’s ecosystem because an enormous forest tract would be destroyed at once. They also write that water resources will be hit in parallel—according to the project plans, wastewater will inevitably be discharged into the Malaya Cheremsha River. Look at the map yourself: the waters of the Malaya Cheremsha, a left tributary of the Chusovaya, ultimately flow into the protected area of the natural park “Chusovaya River.” Why create protected areas at all—and defend them at the state level—if huge dumps of industrial waste are arranged right on the water horizons of rivers that feed them, on their very lifeblood?

I do not have much information about the project, so I will rely on what the activists themselves are now saying. I believe it is important to support our people in their fight for nature! 

Locals say that PNTZ plans to install incinerators (waste‑burning furnaces) at the landfill. Accordingly, columns of smoke and landfill gas could drift toward the nearby settlements—the towns of Revda and Pervouralsk. Toxic fumes may blanket residential areas, carrying heavy metals and dioxins. 

Another blow—imperceptible yet destructive—will be dealt to underground aquifers! Beneath this area lie vast reserves of drinking water that supply several major cities at once: Pervouralsk, Revda, and even Yekaterinburg. These aquifers are designated in the “Pervouralsk Development Strategy to 2035” as strategic water sources—something hydrogeologists have repeatedly warned about, by the way.

Now poisonous leachate could seep in during floods and inevitably reach these strategic waters! Not only city dwellers will drink all this, but villagers too—drawing water from their own wells.

The area has a huge number of private farmsteads and agricultural lands where vegetables are grown, large harvests are gathered, and apiaries produce honey. Naturally, the surroundings could be poisoned by settling emissions and leaks. Toxic dust and contaminated water can make all agricultural produce dangerous to consume; plants, as is well known, accumulate toxic substances.

It is reasonable that people are asking questions: what kind of potatoes will local residents eat? What milk will they drink after grazing their cows? What honey will they taste, brought from the local apiary?

And when a wave of oncology sweeps through local districts, when children begin to suffer from severe chronic diseases—who will link this to the construction of a GIANT landfill? Who will bear responsibility?

Unreal scale

I am, of course, struck by the scale of the landfill: why such colossal dimensions in one place? For perspective, the largest dump in China covers 336 ha, and the biggest landfill in Russia is only 112 ha. Yet PNTZ, being a plant of moderate size, suddenly claims it needs more than 300 hectares for waste.

Honestly, comrades, while studying the materials sent by local residents, I tried to understand: WHY such a huge landfill? Is there even one logical justification?

It raises suspicion that the plant simply plans to bring in waste from other enterprises to perhaps turn the whole thing into a global industrial graveyard. But we have no such data yet. 

Activists point out that the official documents did not even attempt to consider alternative sites for waste placement, although such sites exist. For instance, the region has many technogenically disturbed lands far from settlements where such a dump would not cause such great harm! No one tried to analyze or consider alternative disposal technologies: Russian scientists’ experience and patents for processing industrial waste without burial are ignored, and global experience (e.g., Sweden, Japan successfully minimize waste landfilling) is not taken into account. Instead, the businesspeople propose only one thing: bring it in and dump it where the forest was destroyed. Some will be burned, some buried!

Notably, Sverdlovsk Oblast already has many industrial‑waste landfills. Near Pervouralsk alone operate at least three large specialized sites ready to accept or neutralize PNTZ waste: for example, the Utilis complex (54 km from the plant) accepts hazard classes 3–5 waste; the Inter site (in Verkh‑Neyvinsky) can neutralize even hazardous waste, including by incineration; and the Omega enterprise (65 km) offers modern industrial‑waste recycling technologies.

Local residents also discovered that the administration leased this vast forest plot to PNTZ at an unrealistically low price—only 1 ruble 60 kopecks per square meter per year. They say the plant is getting the land practically for free. Accordingly, actual benefits for the region are zero, and after 25 years, when the dump’s capacity is exhausted, the land will be “reclaimed” on paper and returned to the municipality. Later, the authorities will write off COLOSSAL sums from the budget to eliminate the consequences, medical organizations will profit from sick people, property values will plummet over these years—all simply because officials and another batch of tycoons decided to profit from destroying wild nature.

The residents of Pervouralsk and nearby villages are not sitting idle! They are fighting, have formed an initiative group, and are using every legal method. I have studied their work—they are truly excellent, not silent, they act! And indeed they are taking very breakthrough steps to defend the right to Life for wild nature and for themselves.

Activists personally met with Aleksandr Ryabov, the Sverdlovsk environmental prosecutor, and filed an official complaint about the landfill plans. The prosecutor promised to investigate and even sent a request to the regional Rosprirodnadzor—but no response followed, neither from the oversight agency nor from the prosecutor himself. Ryabov also filed a protest with the Pervouralsk administration and PNTZ management, demanding that the project be reconsidered—yet this protest was rejected by officials.

The initiative group also appealed to Elena Zhilina, Deputy Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Russian Federation for the Urals Federal District—both in person and in writing. But at the envoy’s reception office the people were not heard: no response, no action followed. Activists attempted to enlist the support of federal lawmakers. They met with Zhanna Ryabtseva, Deputy Chair of the State Duma Committee on Ecology, and handed her a statement describing the problem. Reaction, alas, was zero—no reply from Ryabtseva was received.

Then residents turned to another deputy—Aleksandr Kuznetsov (A Just Russia faction). Twenty people—concerned villagers and dacha owners—came to meet him. Deputy Kuznetsov was sympathetic to the problem and sent a parliamentary request to Rospotrebnadzor addressed to S. G. Rodionova, attaching the collected materials. It seemed this was a chance to reach higher authorities. But again a miracle did not occur: neither Rospotrebnadzor nor other agencies responded to the deputy’s inquiry.

Having failed to obtain a response from the executive branch, the residents decided to defend their rights in court. A claim was filed with the Pervouralsk City (District) Court demanding that the lease agreement for the landfill site be declared illegal and canceled and their constitutional right to a favorable environment be protected. The first court hearing was held on 23 April 2025.

The aim of the process is not only to cancel the land deal but also to force a genuine investigation into the project’s environmental impact. The litigation continues, and residents hope to stop what they believe is an illegal project through the court.

In response to the locals’ actions, the PNTZ security service, together with lawyers, filed a complaint with the prosecutor’s office demanding that activists be punished for “spreading lies” on social media. Any opinion about the landfill’s harm was declared “false information” by the plant, after which police began to summon people en masse “for conversations.”

Local residents told me how the public hearings on 17 February 2025 were conducted. According to them, organizers split participants into two separate groups, preventing them from hearing one another. Ecologists and activists were placed in the first group; all other residents along with several allegedly paid speakers from the plant were in the second. As a result, opinions were artificially divided: while ecologists in the first room discussed real threats from the landfill, unprepared villagers in the second were persuaded that “the plant needs the landfill and it’s what Pervouralsk has been waiting for.”

Many residents of nearby villages (Druzhinino, Pervomaysky) were not allowed to attend the hearings at all—they simply were not invited, even though they will live next to the dump. Some tried to submit written objections, but their survey sheets were… confiscated.

All of this is voiced by activists! Therefore, we are now highlighting precisely the public side’s viewpoint: what people are saying and what problem they have asked us to help with. 

Contrary to the President’s decree

I, for my part, would like to note that our state pursues entirely different goals! If everything is as people say, the creation of the PNTZ landfill is diametrically opposed to Russia’s course of ecological development. President Vladimir Putin, back in 2024, by his decree approved national development goals, one of which is the country’s environmental safety—the very safety activists are now fighting for in Sverdlovsk Oblast!

In paragraph 5 of the presidential decree, the need to REDUCE harmful emissions and protect natural systems is spelled out. We also have a federal Industrial Development Strategy to 2030 aimed at greening production! A whole array of national projects—“Ecological Well‑being,” “General Cleanup,” and “Clean Country”—are designed to clean up Russia’s territory from accumulated damage and prevent new ecological disasters.

And if a vast area of forest is cut down to build a gigantic garbage landfill, how does that correspond to what the President of Russia explicitly demanded?

In December 2024, Vladimir Putin asked during a live broadcast: “Where are the plants?” (Meaning waste‑processing plants)—exactly pointing out that modern powerful centers need to be created, not hazardous‑waste landfills instead of living forest. 

Let’s sum up

What local residents are saying really sounds like a movie script, with the worn‑out cliché: a “technogenic monster” cuts down the forest to create a gigantic garbage landfill! The plant, the people, and the environment. Authorities leasing land to the plant for pennies! People asking to live normally, and for that they start to be pressured and intimidated.

Sadly, this is not a film plot or a book scenario. This is a real problem already faced by our fellow citizens! 

The efforts of local residents—appeals, court actions, petitions—have already brought the first changes: the problem has broken out of back‑room confines, media outlets are talking about it, the prosecutor’s office acknowledged violations at the hearings, and the court accepted the lawsuit for proceedings.

Let’s help the residents of Sverdlovsk Oblast! Support public resonance—share this material across all social networks so that as many people as possible know what is happening.

© PAVEL PASHKOV