The Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources, Ruslan Strilets, presented the Waste Management Reform Roadmap, which will provide a comprehensive solution to the problem and make Ukraine one of the leaders in the field of civilized waste management.
The road map shows specific steps and deadlines for the implementation of extended producer responsibility, management of industrial and hazardous waste, liquidation of spontaneous landfills, etc., wrote Strelets on his Facebook page.
It is expected that the implementation of the reform will begin in 2023 with the help of international partners.
"When we talk about solving problems with waste, each of us imagines something different – for some, it is the long-awaited law on extended producer responsibility, for someone – a garbage tank under the house, for someone – ash pits and tailings storage facilities of industrial enterprises, for others – the elimination of spontaneous landfills. And all this is true," he said.
Strelits emphasized that the key tasks of the reform are:
- detinize the sector, create transparent and understandable rules of the game on the market;
- to harmonize Ukrainian legislation with European legislation;
- create a simple and convenient permit and information system to prevent corruption;
- introduce a system of extended producer responsibility;
- solve problems with the management of mining industry waste and hazardous waste;
- strengthen responsibility for violation of requirements in the field of waste management;
- to create conditions for the modern infrastructure of waste collection and processing to finally appear in Ukraine.
He emphasized that the implementation of these measures will create conditions for significant transformations, which will lead to:
- covering 100% of the country's population with the separate waste collection system;
- more than 50% of household waste will be recycled and recovered;
- less than 30% of waste will be landfilled, and only that which cannot be recycled will be incinerated;
- closure and reclamation of landfills that do not meet the requirements of the law;
- creation of at least 200 new modern plants for the treatment of domestic waste, etc.
"It will be a long and thorny road, but it will one hundred percent bring the quality of our life to a new level, open the way to the EU, and change our society from the inside," he said.
The presentation of the Road Map is available by link.
Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources Yevgeny Fedorenko noted that according to official statistics alone, more than 500,000 tons of hazardous waste is generated in Ukraine every year. Their storage places mostly do not meet the requirements of environmental safety, because most of them are either filled to 90% of the design capacity, or are completely full.
Fedorenko emphasized that disposal of such waste is a separate problem.
"Dumping of prices on the market, disposal only on paper and as a result waste ends up in landfills or, in worse cases, in forest strips. The same technologies and equipment that bona fide enterprises have are outdated and inefficient," he said.
The Deputy Minister said that the Law "On Waste Management" has a separate section dedicated to the hazardous waste management system, which, among other things, introduces:
- issuance of a license for a complex of hazardous waste processing operations. This will contribute to the fact that only licensees who have the necessary equipment for the treatment of hazardous waste will be on the market;
- transition to the European list of waste, cancellation of 4 hazard classes, termination of manipulations for placement of waste in landfills;
- carrying out a pre-licensing check - whether the material and technical base of the enterprise meets the established requirements;
- creation of a waste management information system.
He explained that in order to launch these changes, it is necessary to adopt a number of normative legal acts, which the Ministry of Environment is working on.
"The key goal is to create a transparent market for hazardous waste processing services, to ensure the transition to technologies that correspond to the best global practices, to create prerequisites for attracting investments in the development of hazardous waste management infrastructure," Fedorenko emphasized.
As EcoPolitic reported before, on December 8, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources will present to the public and local authorities for the first time waste management reform road map.
