Dive Brief:

• In its bid to host the Winter Olympics, Russia stated it would implement a "Zero Waste" program, but the country has now been caught disregarding its own standards.

• Russia maintained it would not dump construction waste into landfills and that sustainable materials would be used, but the Associated Press uncovered evidence that tons of building waste is being transported by rail to an illegal landfill.

• Documents show that not a penny of the $51 billion budget for the Olympics has gone towards treating construction waste.

Dive Insight:

Allegations of water contamination are arising from the construction waste brought to the quarry's makeshift landfill, located in the middle of a water protection zone with an industrial waste ban. Residents have also complained about plastics and other goods being tossed into a different site—a plot of land leased by the company who owns the landfill.

According to the Associated Press, a spokesman for the deputy prime minister Ilya Dzhus, said that environmental officials inspected the site this month and briefed the government on the results, stating that "there are no significant violations of the law on storing hazardous waste to speak of." The International Olympic Committee says, "Sochi 2014 has given us every assurance of their commitment to games-time waste management," but that state-owned Olympstroi is ultimately responsible for pre-Olympics waste.