The Government has once again postponed the collapse in the field of hazardous waste

The Government has once again postponed the collapse in the field of hazardous waste shutterstock
Hanna Velyka

Only half of the companies in this industry have a processing permit as required by law

The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, by its Resolution No. 340 of March 25, expanded the list of companies that will be able to obtain a permit for waste treatment under a simplified procedure.

The relevant announcement, as well as the list of changes, is published on the government's website.

The Cabinet of Ministers has supplemented the Procedure for Implementing a Pilot Project on a Simplified Procedure for Obtaining a Permit for Waste Treatment Operations, approved by Resolution No. 1003 of August 30, 2024.

Now companies that handle hazardous waste can also obtain a permit under a simplified procedure. But there is a caveat: this permit will be valid only until September 1 this year.

By this date, companies must prepare all the necessary documents and obtain a permit to carry out waste treatment operations under the new procedure as part of the waste management reform.

Who can obtain a permit for waste treatment under the simplified procedure

This category now also includes business entities that carry out waste operations under codes R1-R13 and codes D1-D15, if they have one of the following documents

a) a positive conclusion of the state environmental expertise for waste management:

  • hazardous (collection, transportation, sorting, storage, treatment, processing, utilization, disposal, neutralization and burial)
  • household waste (treatment, processing, utilization, disposal and burial);

b) a positive conclusion on the environmental impact assessment, which determines the admissibility of the planned activities and waste management facilities:

  • operations in the field of hazardous waste management (storage, treatment, processing, utilization, removal, neutralization and disposal);
  • operations in the field of household and other waste management (treatment, processing, recycling, utilization, removal, neutralization and disposal) with a volume of 100 tons per day or more;
  • facilities for industrial utilization, disposal of animal carcasses and/or livestock waste;
  • utilization, removal, treatment, neutralization, and disposal of household waste.

One of these documents must be included in the package of documents submitted to the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine to obtain a permit under the simplified procedure.

Why did the government take this step?

According to the Ministry of Environmental Protection, only 38 business entities in Ukraine are currently licensed to carry out hazardous waste management activities. However, only 19 can operate in the market – these are the companies that, in addition to the license, have also received permission to carry out waste treatment operations under the new rules.

The ministry noted that this number of companies is not enough to handle the entire volume of hazardous waste generated in Ukraine. Therefore, in order to avoid a market collapse and prevent the accumulation of hazardous waste, the government made this decision.

As EcoPolitic wrote earlier, the Ministry of Ecology published a draft resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers on expanding the range of enterprises that can obtain a permit for waste treatment under a simplified procedure on January 31.

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