President of the Association of Environmental Professionals (PAEW) Lyudmyla Tsyhanok said that starting in January 2024, all 367 companies that have licenses for hazardous waste management are likely to be outside the legal field.
This happened due to legal uncertainty caused by the delay in the work of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources and the imperfection of the regulatory mechanism, Tsyganok wrote on her Facebook page.
She emphasized that the activities of these companies are directly related to both enterprises that generate hazardous waste and such waste from the population, such as used batteries, mercury thermometers, medical waste, etc.
"Given the lack of legal certainty of regulatory acts, as well as unrealistic terms for obtaining new licenses by existing licensees, the probability of stopping the entire industry is quite high," Tsyganok said.
In her opinion, such a situation can also negatively affect Ukraine's image and European integration prospects.
Tsyganok noted that the only solution to this problem could be the confirmation of the conditions for maintaining the validity of licenses and the absence of the need to obtain new licenses for existing enterprises.
" Is such a situation artificially created during the war possible? Will replacing the real implementation of the directive with the actual establishment of the "shadow" market strengthen the EU's trust in Ukraine? We are not even talking about the environment," she said.
Earlier, EcoPolitic wrote, that experts of the Association of Environmental Professionals (PAEW) have criticized the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources for new regulations on hazardous waste management, which reduce this market to a "shadow".
As EcoPolitic previously reported, in December the Cabinet of Ministers approved the Licensing Conditions for the implementation of hazardous waste management business activities.
