Melange Project: beating dangerous fuel into fertilizer

TBILISI, 28 March 2002 - An OSCE-supervised project in Georgia to produce fertilizers from extremely dangerous missile fuel is well underway. Two German experts working on the field gave positive account of their evaluation of the "Melange Project".

"Melange - that sounds like the coffee with milk that you get in a Café in Vienna - but in fact it is a highly unstable and explosive missile fuel component which urgently requires neutralization. It is a great asset that it can be converted into fertilizer for the acid soil in Western Georgia", said Ambassador Jean-Michel Lacombe, Head of the OSCE Mission to Georgia on the occasion of the visit of the experts.

The Melange Project is a pilot project in the framework of the OSCE voluntary fund established to alleviate the (ecological) consequences of the disbanding of former Soviet bases in Georgia. So far, the governments of Germany, the Netherlands, Turkey and the United Kingdom have contributed to this fund. Germany additionally provided with experts. The project is implemented by the Institute for Physical and Organic Chemistry of the Georgian Academy of Science.

"We are very satisfied with the efforts so far undertaken by the Georgian side to implement the Melange Project", said Klaus Müller, a member of the expert delegation, which completed their visit to the site of neutralization on the former Soviet military base in Meria (Western Georgia) on 27 March.

Apart from around 400 tons of Melange on this location, further several hundreds tons of this dangerous missile fuel component were left behind on a number of former Soviet military bases all over Georgia. This problem as well as others related to toxic waste is of utmost importance for the country due to its negative impact on human health and the environment.

The OSCE Mission to Georgia continues to seek funding for similar projects in the framework of the OSCE voluntary fund.