Member of the Eurasian Economic Union (from January 2015)

Population: 2,9 Mio

Capital: Yerevan

Municipal solid waste (MSW) management is in a development stage in Armenia. The level of awareness about the reduction of waste, sorting, recycling culture and practices is low among the Armenian public. The quality of municipal solid waste management services is very low and that leads to social, environmental and sanitation problems in general.

Most municipalities have some type of basic MSW management – collection and transport of unsorted MSW to landfill or dumpsite. There is no waste source separation system to recycle MSW. Waste pickers collect valuable materials in the landfills and sell it for the local recyclers or waste traders.

There is no sufficient funding for a MSW management, waste fees paid by the citizens are low, not covering the associated costs.

There is currently no EPR legislation to support collection and recycling of packaging waste, WEEE, used car tires and used cars.

In 2018 Law on Waste was amended; it has no provisions on MSW sorting and recycling.

In summer 2016 The Armenian parliament ratified a loan agreement signed with European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), which is providing a €8 million loan to Armenia to finance the construction of a solid waste landfill in Yerevan that will comply with EU regulations. The construction works are due to start in 2021.

EPR is currently not  included in the legislation. Armenia is in a process to define and design its Extended Producers Responsibility (EPR) policy and legislation; The EU-Armenia Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement requires that EPR is implemented in the Armenian legislation by 2023.