Bishkek's new waste-to-energy plant lacks sufficient waste from the capital, forcing authorities to collect additional garbage from the entire Chui region. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.
Nurgaaky Isaeva, a leading specialist at the Department of Rational Waste and Wastewater Management of the Kyrgyz Ministry of Natural Resources, Ecology and Technical Supervision, said the plant has been operating for six months, and during this time only a positive trend has been observed: there is a shortage of waste.
"We have been working for six months, and over six months only a good trend is observed: there is not enough waste... The waste-to-energy plant was supposed to cover only the city of Bishkek, but in Bishkek we don't even have enough waste, and now the Ministry of Natural Resources is helping them collect waste throughout the Chui region. This is a very large area, and the issue of transportation is being resolved," she said at the X Eurasian Business Forum Green energy & Waste Recycling.
According to Isaeva, if waste collection from the Chui region to the Bishkek plant can be organized, the enterprise will be fully supplied with raw materials. She also said she personally visited the plant and inspected the wastewater, calling it "quite normal." According to her, the ash and sludge remaining after waste incineration are used to produce cinder blocks, which are then sold.
The Bishkek waste-to-energy plant was launched at the end of December 2025. It was built by a Chinese company in one and a half years, and the cost of the plant was $95 million. The facility can process 1,200 tons of waste per day, generating 30 MW of electricity, which, according to the mayor of Bishkek, is enough to meet the needs of the Kemin district of the city. At the same time, media reported that about 20 million tons of waste have accumulated in Bishkek.
Notably, Chinese company Junxin Environmental Protection has begun construction and installation work on a waste processing plant project in the Alatau district of Almaty with investments of over $280 million. The planned capacity of the plant will be up to 2,000 tons of waste per day, generating up to 60 MW of electricity, which will be supplied to the city's power grid.
The representative of the Kyrgyz Ministry of Ecology noted that various projects for sorting, processing and disposal of waste are being promoted in the republic. According to her, Kyrgyzstan plans to launch other waste-to-energy plants, including on the coast of Lake Issyk-Kul, popular among Kyrgyzstanis, Kazakhs, Uzbeks and Russians.
"We are creating conditions for waste-to-energy plants to be built, and in Central Asia, probably, only we have them so far, and they are being built not only in one place, but in all regions: in the south, in the north, and on Issyk-Kul, which is very good – they are not only engaged in disposal, but also in generating electricity," she said.
Kazakhstan is only planning to launch waste-to-energy plants – one in each of the three largest cities: Almaty, Astana and Shymkent. The waste-to-energy plant being built in Almaty by Chinese Junxin Environmental Protection received an electricity tariff of 55 tenge per kWh – more than twice lower than the current marginal tariff for such facilities in Kazakhstan (130 tenge per kWh), Kursiv was told by Ruslan Tukenov, director of the waste management department of the Ministry of Ecology. Future plants in Shymkent and Astana received tariffs of 54 tenge and 54.8 tenge, respectively.