By Hélène B. Ducros
In this interview with Sofia Sydorenko, chairwoman and co-founder of Zero Waste Alliance Ukraine,[1] we get a glimpse into the workings of a nongovernmental organization (NGO) operating in the environmental sector as the war between Ukraine and Russia rages on. She helps us understand the place of environmental agendas in a country at war and shows us how NGOs can still mobilize people around a renewed vision of waste management systems. She also demonstrates a compelling connection between waste, the war itself, and systems of industrial (over)production based on the circulation of (cheap) Russian fossil fuels.
While the war obviously brings many acute life and death challenges, Sofia Sydorenko nonetheless brings hope, as she describes that the war can also be an opportunity to reconsider waste and society’s relationship with materials, as well as collect data for analysis. One of her goals is to better understand waste streams—notably in the context of destruction and demolition—which she sees as one important way to prepare for a prosperous, victorious post-war Ukraine. She also highlights how, far from official governmental actions, grassroots organizations with a common mission cooperate on a pan-European level, showing how Ukrainian stakeholders and activists are looking to the European Union to guide them, as they unofficially emulate, adopt, and adapt EU legislation in local projects, learning from EU successes and failures in the rehauling of Ukraine’s waste management system, away from mere business interests.
Hélène B. Ducros: How did you get involved with the idea of “zero waste” in Ukraine and with the Europe-wide Zero Waste Alliance network more generally?
Sofia Sydorenko: I have been involved in the Ukrainian network since its beginning. In 2017, we were several individuals in various cities working separately on improving the waste management system in different parts of the country. We started with researching and analyzing this system and asking questions about the types of waste that were present, the structure of the system, and why changes that had been attempted did not result in any success. We wanted to dig deeper into the root causes of the mess we were facing in waste management in Ukraine. That led us to the idea of “zero waste,” and we discovered the Zero Waste network, which provided insightful explanations and clear examples of what had been done in different places. We came to understand that our system in Ukraine was set up to allow producers to generate waste from the beginning of the production process and all along it, from the wrong design to packaging. That production waste is in addition to the waste resulting from the actual use of resources in the creation of many things. We also realized that the Russian invasion was made possible because of this very system of production and resource use.
We recognized that to change the waste management system in Ukraine we needed to delve into its pyramidic hierarchy and devise concrete steps to be followed for change to occur. The first step entails waste prevention. How do we rethink how we produce goods and services, how we buy things, how we consume things, how we conceive of need. At that time, we were a few people working on the ground out of NGOs in Kyiv, Lviv, or Kharkiv. In 2018, we decided to get to know each other better. We already knew of each other from websites, social media, and conferences, but we called for a meeting specifically for people who understand this idea of prevention, of rethinking the system, of generating data and taking steps based on this data, which is a comprehensive approach. We still faced the narrative that the waste issue can be tackled with activities such as clean up efforts, but in reality that is not enough. We need fundamental change.
We organized a “Zero Waste” weekend in 2018 in Lviv. People from different cities came. This is where, at a local pub after the official programming, the idea to forge an alliance was born. We also knew right away that we wanted to link up with the Zero Waste Europe organization. We valued that experience and wanted to be part of the European family. Even though Ukraine was not part of the European Union (EU) and not on the path to becoming an EU member, we still felt that our future was there and that to grow and develop Ukraine we had to learn from research and practices that worked in the EU. We wanted to analyze these practices to see how they could be adapted in Ukraine. We were also aware that not all practices in the EU are good ones. We connected with the European network, which was receptive although they asked for a clearer understanding of who we were and what our goals were. This motivated us to form our own formal alliance, which we registered in 2019 with three cofounding members.
HBD: What are the main issues in waste management in Ukraine you aim to address?
SS: The biggest issues are of course littering and illegal dumping, but the deeper question remains a lack of systemic vision, which is partly caused by a lack of data. We still have no proper data about, for instance, waste morphology. What are the different waste streams? Who are the stakeholders working in the system? What instruments do we have in hands to motivate people to prevent waste appearance, sort waste, or compost? So, we started with the big idea of addressing the lack of data about waste morphology. We initiated local actions in different cities. It was probably the first time in Ukraine that was put forth the need to analyze data about waste in order to offer solutions. We want to make people understand that we need to collect data to design solutions, because in Ukraine, when you talk about the waste management system, you will often hear that all we need is to build more plants—expensive infrastructure—and that the main goal is to get funding for them. It has been the solution chosen by old school individuals, usually men, who have worked in this field for a long time. There is no desire to look deeper. But we did do a number of morphological analysis activities and came to the conclusion that almost half of our waste is biowaste (organic matter). We also found that there was no communication about the need to separate the collection of biowaste. If we consider building new plants, then composting sites are usually the cheapest of all waste streams, using the cheapest technology. But there was no communication about this, even though it could have solved almost fifty percent of our waste problem. Thus, that is where we started with designing solutions.
HBD: Picking up on your comment about the lack of women in the top-down waste management sector in Ukraine, I noticed that your organization is mostly run by women. How do you explain it? Is there something resolutely “feminine” about a reasoned waste management system?
SS: Unfortunately, many perceive waste management as an opportunity for business. In our movement, we believe that there are certainly economic instruments we can and should use, but we cannot see the waste management field as a business, as a company, as a place from which to earn money. Women, who I believe can look at things more strategically, can see that. We cannot solve the waste problem if we look for revenues as a top priority. Our top priority in waste management should be changing system. Very often such change does not bring any money, but it does bring us the possibility of a prosperous future. I think that women, more often than men, understand the importance of having a future. It should be obvious, but for many it is not.
HBD: What is your connection with the wider European Zero Waste network? Is it a tight connection or is it loose and indirect? How do you look to Europe for solutions?
SS: It is both. We are happy that we can participate in Europe-wide projects. For example, we participated in a joint project on separating biowaste with ten European partners from different countries in 2024-2025. We implemented this project in 65 local communities in Ukraine. We also are part of the EU Zero Waste Cities program.[2] We implemented activities in four municipalities in cooperation with European municipalities in other partner countries such as Italy, Portugal, and Germany. It is a four-year comprehensive program to help us develop assessment tools to collect and analyze data related to the waste management system in those municipalities, which includes knowing more about the stakeholders, communal services, and communication activities. It will provide us with data we can use to develop a waste management plan for those communities that are part of the project.
On the strictly national level, we also do advocacy work on the law. Ukraine is not an EU member, so it does not have to oblige by EU legislation. However, in our alliance we are very keen to adopt what is required at the EU level and already include it in our legislation. We do not work directly with EU partners on legislation, but we take on EU laws and resolutions to analyze them and cooperate with European experts to better understand these laws and how to adapt them to the Ukrainian context, which is quite different. We are not only very interconnected with the European network’s activities, but our general vision and direction is also toward the EU.
HBD: About this context, Ukraine is a country at war. How are environmental stakes taken into account, waste or otherwise, in a country that is mobilized against military aggression? Aside from the obvious challenges, do you see opportunities for this agenda in these incredibly difficult times?
SS: Environmental issues are definitely not on the top of the priority list. On the one hand, I understand it because people are focused on surviving. There are basic human priorities before the environment. It is understandable on a technical grassroots level. On the other hand, strategically, this must be one of the top priorities, as we are having numerous conversations about rebuilding Ukraine, restoring Ukraine, and renewing some of our old processes to establish new ground rules for our future. We believe that we will win this war and start rebuilding for a prosperous future in the country. That is why we must place the green agenda as a priority, as we cannot again put economic revenues first, ahead of preserving ecosystems for example. Unfortunately, we still face this narrative that the Ukrainian economy is struggling and that this should be a green light allowing us to do anything. But there is no point in fighting for our future if there is no future, if we just use it all.
Another compelling argument connecting waste to the war context is that the fossil fuel industry is the top source of income for Russia, a terrorist state that is attacking Ukraine daily. The reason Russia can attack us is that it has so much oil and gas that it sells to so many countries, which in turn produce things that are not needed or are harmful, or support systems that are not needed or are harmful. The system is constructed based on the way we consume things that were built in Russia’s proxies, for example China. China buys a lot of oil and gas from Russia for very cheap to be able to produce these things that we usually do not need. Clearly, the system works because we ourselves are funders of it; we in effect enable Russia to attack. This situation has much to do with the waste management system. Think about single use packaging we use daily. It is all based on fossil fuel coming from countries that are not using the funds they get for it for good use. The solution is to stop using so much oil and gas through the consumption of so many things we do not need. Then we will be able to deal with the waste issue and the aggressors who exploit resources and send their drones to attack our cities.
HBD: How have you adapted to the current context of war? For example, your organization has a chapter in Mariupol, a city entirely devastated by the war, bombed, occupied. How do people look to the future there?
SS: We had to adapt to war and we did. It is very sad that we had to learn to work in such difficult circumstances. Before February 2022, there was Zero Waste Mariupol, an amazing group that had been working passionately in the city. They organized events, cooperated with the municipality, and had the will to effect change. After the full scale invasion by Russia, some people in this group were able to flee, while so many were not. One person was able to leave after twenty days of occupation. You might have heard of the movie “20 days in Mariupol.”[3] She lived these twenty days; she experienced not having food or medicine, not knowing what was going to happen. A complete nightmare. I remember the day she left town with her family and pets; it is literally the story from the movie. These people had to rebuild their lives in a different city. How do we continue our work for a city we love if we are not there? We try to repurpose, rethink what we can do in the context of not being there. Our members who have had to relocate now focus on analytical work, advocacy work, and consulting work. They write articles and meet citizens from other cities. Our colleague from Mariupol has joined another community and started implementing Zero Waste practices there. But it is a struggle because the culture is different. Sometimes people perceive that it is outsiders who come in to tell them what to do, so there is local resistance. All that on top of having to struggle with basic practical challenges such as finding a new home, getting services, etc. It is very difficult for them. Our main task is to help people find something to live for again, and we always try to find these connections that show that what you do now can be adapted in the de-occupied municipalities in the future. But it has been three and a half years, so it can be difficult to keep faith. There is so much uncertainty. Plus, people who have fled also want to grow some roots where they are now, while always leaning back toward their old municipality in spite of Russians’ will to destroy it.
HBD: You spoke of culture. Is there such a thing as a Ukrainian waste culture, or a specifically Ukrainian way to approach the question of waste? What kind of terrain are you working with?
SS: We think about this question a lot. Ukraine does have its own waste culture. In one way, it is dependent on economic stability and people’s income. The more you earn, the more you can buy, the more you can waste. Since Ukraine’s economy is not in the best of shape, we produce less waste than many prosperous countries. On the other hand, I am afraid that when our economic situation improves, we will start wasting more, in part because of the Soviet legacy. In Soviet times, you had only one pair of jeans, and there were not many items on shop shelves, hence also not many opportunities to waste later on. Food waste basically did not exist because people ate the food they had until the last bit. Today, we have this desire to make up for that time, to transform our habits, with everything becoming more and bigger. For example, sometimes you see older ladies in supermarkets taking the whole roll of plastic bags intended for produce, just because now they can. When I was younger, we washed and reused plastic bags because they were not readily available. My mother, who is now in her sixties, loves to go to second hand shops, because they did not have them during Soviet times. That generation enjoys having more clothes. It is interesting to see the culture of older generations; they want to make up for what they did not have. Younger generations should come to understand that they do not need many things to be happy. But I think that as we have more money, materials and resources are not valued as much. However, the full scale invasion might help us rethink the value of things, because war shows you that you can build an enormous house and fill it with an enormous amount of material things, but one day it is gone.
HBD: So, you are saying that the culture of waste in Ukraine is based on a history of shortages during Soviet times, followed by a moment of euphoric consumption, but that the invasion has put things in perspective?
SS: Definitely. Another aspect in our “DNA” is that we suffered three famines, all caused by the Soviet government. The last one took place in 1946, and we have an official day of remembrance for it every year. In school we are taught about this tragic history and how food was then valued, even peels from potatoes. This history has had a lasting impact on us. For example, if you have more food than you can eat, then you share it. We have that cultural trait somewhere in us, and that comes into the way we approach waste management.
HBD: In the occupied zones, are there food shortages currently? Is the production of waste reduced because of the Russian occupation?
SS: I do not think there is hunger right now. Russians keep people at a basic level of human dignity. But in Donetsk there was an issue with water and people not having communal access to water. However, there has been an incredible amount of produce waste, for example in 2024 when the Kherson region became occupied. The south of Ukraine is very flourishing, with much productive land. In particular, farmers there produce tomatoes. We saw pictures of farmers harvesting their tomatoes but being unable to leave the occupied territories to sell their crop in non-occupied territories, so harvests were just dumped. There are not enough people in occupied territories to buy all the fresh produce, so it goes to waste. The same thing happened with watermelons when the harvest was interrupted by drones flying over; people had to hide to seek protection, and the watermelons were wasted.
HBD: How do you see the role of Zero Waste and in general of a pro-environment agenda and sensibility in reconstruction?
SS: It will not be easy. I hope we can understand that it will be a long process and that we can focus on the vision in a context where we will not have that many resources. Our vision is based on the waste management hierarchy, starting from waste prevention, reuse, repair, and setting up a system that motivates people to recycle, sort, etc. It is important not to step into the trap of enormous investments in plants that cost hundreds of thousands of euros, as if they could solve the issue. Our different vision asks how we see ourselves in ten or twenty years: we want waste to be separated at the source. Instead, today we have investors trying to push the idea of mechanical-biological treatment (MBT) plants that are ready to accept all types of waste and sort them, then recycle what comes out. But we have data showing that these plants are not working to full capacity and that we still lose very valuable resources in the process. In contrast, our vision is to separate biowaste and establish a deposit refund system for packaging, where we do not dump recyclables somewhere but instead bring them to the producers, to the retailers. Such a system has proven to be the most effective. We could develop a beautiful system of collection points. But In Ukraine, there are many retired people who already collect recyclables to bring them to existing collection points to earn money. We have to design a system that supports these people who depend on recyclables. We also must establish a system where we produce items that can be repaired, where there are repair centers, and where repair points are the norm. These should be supported by the producers themselves, as part of an extended producer responsibility scheme. As far as packaging, you can use reusable alternatives, just like you do not have to use single use items when hosting an event, for example. As far as textile waste, we must stop producing so much that we do not need, do not buy, do not wear. There will always be a need for landfills, but we can build proper ones and send as little as possible to them. And we must analyze what gets there. This should be our main goal for the development of a new system of waste management in Ukraine.
HBD: There is much concern today about construction and demolition waste and byproduct rubble, especially in the urban setting. When considering areas of Ukraine that have suffered so much destruction, how do you approach waste management there, as Ukraine will need to clean up certain areas and evacuate ruins before it rebuilds?
SS: This is a whole different waste stream we must deal with at the moment. There is a lot of demolition waste, and unfortunately it keeps growing. At the same time, there is an opportunity for us to do research and analyze what is there. What is in this debris? It will be a case by case approach at first. Then we can establish patterns and develop a methodology for how demolition waste can be used in the future. There are already cases in Ukraine where demolition waste is being reused. For example, in Kharkiv, a small start-up reuses demolition waste such as bricks. They collect the overall waste, sort it, separate the bricks, which they give to the community for reuse. Switzerland has made donations of old windows to be reused by people in Ukraine. So the reuse of material for reconstruction is already present, which is a resourceful potential approach. Another opportunity is in the recycling of this waste. Concrete blocks can be crushed in small bits and once mixed can be used in construction or for roads. The Japanese government has provided support for a start-up trying to recycle demolition waste and create resources that can be used for reconstruction. But we need more research on this topic. What we can do right now is advise municipalities facing destruction to collect this demolition waste somewhere, so it can be analyzed. That way, we will know what is there, what can be used or recycled, and what cannot be used. There are specific obstacles in this process, such as harmful and dangerous substances. We need to understand how to approach these. With technology and AI, we cannot say that we cannot solve this issue; we can, with the proper will and investment.
HBD: You mentioned hazardous and toxic waste. Do Soviet era structures present specific challenges, such as asbestos, etc.? Also, is the link made in the public arena between waste management and public health?
SS: Asbestos is the first item on the harmful substances agenda. Many houses were built with roofs made out of asbestos-containing plaques. The least we can do in reconstruction is to never use them again. There is a law against it, but some politicians would like to make asbestos in construction legal again. However, our first lesson should be not to repeat past mistakes; second, we must find solutions, as we did in Chernobyl. As far as health, there is no explicit connection, although we do consider this notion in our work, for example by thinking about the relationship between plastics and health, incineration and health, waste and health; these are all issues that impact our communities. We could do more there, and our government could be more aware and working on this topic accordingly.
HBD: Is there anything else you would like to tell about your work?
SS: There are many other topics we could talk about. In the end, it is beneficial to work with like-minded people in this field, people who can support you and motivate you. All changes begin with people. Waste management is a difficult field because there are many stakeholders who do not want change, or who believe in other ways. But where there is a community, there is hope. We work with hope and support.
Sofia Sydorenko is Chairwoman and Co-founder of Zero Waste Alliance Ukraine. She studied global studies at Nebraska Wesleyan University and received a Master’s from Lviv National University in geography – tourism studies and a Master’s from the Ukrainian Catholic University in non-profit management. She lives in Lviv, Ukraine, where she is a co-owner of a local zero waste shop “Hola Hrechka.” She is passionate about nature, efficiency, and dog walking and is a proud Ukrainian and hopeless optimist.
Hélène B. Ducros holds a Juris Doctor and PhD in geography from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. She is co-editor of Justice in Climate Action Planning (Springer, 2022) and Decentering European Studies: Perspectives on Europe from its Beyond (UNESP, forthcoming). She is the creator and editor of GlobalEurope Journal.
[1] For more information on Zero Waste Ukraine: https://zerowaste.org.ua/en/golovna-english/
[2] https://zerowasteeurope.eu/our-work/zero-waste-cities/
[3] 20 Days in Mariupol, a 2023 documentary directed by Mstyslav Andriiovych Chernov won a Best Documentary Academy Award and can be watched on PBS here.
