Starting from June 9, 2024, a simple waste declaration will not be enough for companies. To operate officially, they will need to have a permit for waste treatment operations. Since obtaining it is a complicated and lengthy process, most producers from various sectors – more than 8,477 companies – risk becoming "illegal".
The problem will also affect household waste, as not a single landfill has been able to obtain the appropriate permit in 4 months.
This was warned by Liudmyla Tsyhanok, President of the Association of Environmental Professionals and CEO of the Office of Sustainable Solutions.
The Ministry of Environmental Protection continues to methodically create obstacles for Ukrainian businesses in this already difficult time for the country. In an attempt to implement the waste management reform, it first paralyzed the work of companies dealing with hazardous waste, and now it has reached all other industry players.
From June 9, 2024, enterprises that process waste must have a permit for waste processing operations. Moreover, it is necessary even for carrying out the smallest operations with waste, such as, for example, sealing the film. The procedure for obtaining this permit involves an assessment of the impact of the planned activity on the environment, which costs more than UAH 500,000 and lasts at least six months. Because of this, only 2 companies for the entire country have received such a permit.
Lyudmila Tsyganok says that entrepreneurs face difficulties in obtaining a permit even at the stage of submitting documents. The reason for this lies in the glaring imperfection of the Single ecological platform "EkoSistema", through which they are submitted. It works with errors and requires documents that are either not provided for in the "Procedure for issuing, refusing, canceling a permit for waste treatment operations" (Government Resolution No. 1328 of December 19, 2023), or that cannot yet be available (for example, for enterprises that operated before the entry into force of the law).
The expert warns that these factors do not allow enterprises to obtain permits for waste processing operations on time – by June 9. As a result, it can lead to the shutdown of many sectors of the economy, the destruction of investments and a garbage collapse.
It is worth saying that the Ministry of Environment responded to the concerns of the expert community and on April 23, 2024, published for discussion a draft Cabinet resolution "On the implementation of an experimental project regarding a simplified procedure for obtaining a permit for waste treatment operations." But the minimum duration of public discussion of the draft document is one month. If you add to this the time for signing and publishing the project, then the subjects will definitely not have time to get permits on time. In addition, the "EkoSistema" platform currently does not provide a technical possibility for the implementation of experimental projects.
A similar situation exists with regard to household waste, because in 4 months, not a single landfill was able to obtain a permit for waste management.
"Won't such a 'reform' paralyze all cities and towns of Ukraine during the war? Where will household waste go in the summer?", asks Lyudmila Tsyganok.
She suggested the following steps to avoid a crisis in the field of waste management:
- Extend the validity of declarations until the end of martial law and for 3 months after its end.
- Create in each region at least one hazardous waste management enterprise with an extended license for all types of waste.
- Introduce a moratorium on inspections by the State Environmental Inspection for generators of hazardous waste until the creation of such processing enterprises.
- In the de-occupied territories, choose sites on lands degraded as a result of military actions for the creation of industrial clusters for deep processing of waste. At these enterprises, prepared hazardous waste can pass through a cascade of deep processing technologies into semi-finished products and raw materials for the chemical industry.
The expert is sure that the waste management infrastructure developed in this way will allow over time to process old solid waste landfills and accept waste from other countries.
"The existing situation contradicts the principles of state regulatory policy, creates obstacles for the development of economic activity and the country's economy, threatens national security, life and health of the population. In addition, it finally destroys the international investment field for this area," sums up Ludmila Tsyganok.
We will remind you that the Association of Environmental Professionals (PAEW) warned about a possible crisis in the hazardous waste management market, which will arise due to the impossibility of issuing licenses, at the end of last year. The reason for this situation was the fact that the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine adopted the resolution "On the approval of the "License conditions for conducting business activities on hazardous waste management" 5 months later than expected. Thus, companies from 6 months, which Law No. 2320-IX "About "waste management" refers to the preparation of new documents, only one remains.
In January, the European Business Association (EBA) also called on the government to urgently take measures to restore the work of companies in the field of hazardous waste management, because from January 9, 2024, the previous licenses for the implementation of economic activities for the management of hazardous waste " have lost" their validity.
In February, experts of the Association of Environmental Professionals noted that the hazardous waste management market had been in chaos for almost 1.5 months, as the entire industry was in the "shadows".
As EcoPolitic previously reported, as of the end of March this year, only 9 companies in Ukraine have received licenses to carry out hazardous waste management activities, 6 of which are narrowly focused or issued for the companies' own needs. Most Ukrainian hazardous waste treatment companies have lost their licenses.
