Due to the untimely preparation and adoption of legal acts to the Law of Ukraine No. 2320-IX "On Waste Management", as well as due to the extremely slow pace of issuing permits by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine, 92% of companies that have licenses to handle hazardous waste, they will be lost on October 10.
The Association of Environmental Professionals (PAEW) drew attention to this urgent problem.
The experts said that there may be only 3 (!!!) licensees left for the entire country out of the existing 37, which will have the right to accept hazardous waste from generators. The other 34 economic entities will lose their permits, as the declarations on the implementation of types of economic activities regarding the implementation of waste treatment operations will expire on October 9.
According to PAEW president Ludmila Tsyhanok, each region needs at least one licensee. She emphasized that in the conditions of war, when the enemy attacks high-risk objects, the timely disposal of expired agrochemicals, waste containing, for example, PVC, PCB, becomes extremely necessary.
Why such a problem arose
- The new European integration Law of Ukraine "On Waste Management" has significantly expanded the list of business entities that must obtain a permit to carry out waste processing operations.
- The Ministry of Environment, together with the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, prepared and approved the Procedure for issuing, refusing to issue, and canceling a permit for waste treatment operations only 1.5 years (!!!) after the adoption of the aforementioned law, so companies did not physically have time to receive the new type of permit documents for waste management.
- The experimental project introduced by the Cabinet of Ministers in September regarding the simplified procedure for obtaining a permit for waste treatment operations applies only to a limited range of entities and does not include the handling of hazardous waste.
- According to the specialists of the Association, there are "problems in the procedure of obtaining a permit and in the performance of official duties by employees of the Ministry of Environment". They substantiate this statement, in particular with numbers: as of August 30, 2024, subjects submitted 700 applications for obtaining a permit. During this time, the number of decisions on refusal was 548 (69 under consideration), the number of decisions on issuing a permit was 83.
"That is, the permit is issued only in relation to one of the eight applications submitted by business entities, which may indicate the groundlessness of refusals to issue permits, refusals for reasons not previously specified in previous refusals, imperfections of the EcoSystem, etc.," experts say.
Separately, they emphasized that according to the State Statistics Service of Ukraine, up to 10,000 economic entities should be covered by the potential permit procedure.
Therefore, PAEW appealed to the government to extend the validity period of the declarations submitted by business entities on the implementation of types of economic activities regarding the implementation of waste processing operations until January 9, 2025.
The Association also asks the State Regulatory Service of Ukraine to initiate an inspection of the Ministry of Environment, which will concern the exercise of its powers regarding the issuance, refusal to issue, cancellation of a permit for waste treatment operations, and to respond accordingly to the results of this inspection.
At the end of March, EcoPolitic wrote about what just 3 companies in Ukraine were able to receive licenses for hazardous waste management.
In May, we reported that from June 9, the usual waste declaration for enterprises will not be enough. In order to work officially, it will be necessary to have a permit for waste treatment operations. Since obtaining it is a complex and lengthy process, the majority of manufacturers from various fields – and this is more than 8,477 enterprises – risk becoming "illegals" .
EcoPolitics also conducted its own analysis and calculated that at the current rate, the licensing of hazardous waste management will continue another 5 years.
