Businesses will be given a year before tightening waste disposal rules

The StekloSouz Association of Russia takes an active part in the implementation of the Concept of Extended Responsibility of Producers and Importers of Goods and Packaging (ERP). Extensive joint work is being carried out with the Government of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation, the Russian Environmental Operator (PPK REO), OOOP, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation, and supervisory authorities.

The heads of the Committee for Ecology of StekloSouz of Russia are members of the working groups (WG) of the above government structures.

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation sent a number of proposals for the Extended Responsibility Strategy for Producers and Importers of Goods and Packaging (ERP), including the implementation of the Roadmap.

The proposals were taken into account in the final documents.

A number of StekloSouz initiatives were sent to the Russian Environmental Operator (PPK REO), including on VAT, waste disposal, the creation of an electronic system for tracking the movement of packaging, the construction of factories and the production of final raw materials from cullet for remelting.

The work is carried out within the framework of the state partnership policy.

Why the reform was postponed for a year

The mechanism of extended producer responsibility has been applied in Russia since 2015, however, the majority of businesses did not report on the disposal of goods or packaging and did not pay the eco-fee. In the summer of 2021, the Ministry of Natural Resources prepared a bill tightening the rules of the EPR. But the Ministry of Economic Development sent comments to this document, calling the start date of the reform (January 1, 2022) “unrealizable”, and proposed to provide for a phased transition period to the new disposal rules for at least two years, taking into account “an objective assessment of the feasibility factor”. The Ministry of Agriculture, having considered the comments of the business, advocated postponing the reform to 2025. The Ministry of Industry and Trade did not approve the bill.

“Every year, more than 60 million tons of municipal solid waste is generated in the country, most of which is sent to landfills. This is a serious environmental burden. In accordance with the instructions of the President, it is time to introduce the “polluter pays” principle, Abramchenko said (her words were reported by the press service). According to the Deputy Prime Minister, it is necessary to remove the financial burden from citizens and introduce fair business responsibility.

“You shouldn’t scare consumers with price increases or empty shelves (one of the risks of the ROP reform that business pointed to. - RBC), there are no prerequisites for this. In many countries of the world, the RPR has been implemented and the situation with the generation and disposal of waste has already been improved,” Abramchenko noted. The bill is aimed at ensuring and monitoring the fulfillment of those obligations that are supposedly being fulfilled by business, she added.

This document will be discussed with all interested departments at the government site in January 2022, and after that the bill will be submitted to the State Duma. Abramchenko told RBC back in early December that it would be considered during the spring session of the State Duma in 2022, and promised to do everything to expedite its consideration. Then the general director of the Russian Ecological Operator (who oversees the waste reform) Denis Butsaev said that the company and departments are working to ensure that the “new ROP” begins to operate from the beginning of next year. Now he says that the introduction of new rules and reform of the ROP is "inevitable." And the postponement of its start to 2023 will not affect the achievement of national goals for sorting 100% of waste and reducing the share of their disposal from the current 94 to 50%, established by the decree of President Vladimir Putin. “National goals will be met. Moreover, some regions have already approached this indicator. For example, the Moscow region," Butsaev emphasized.

What risks does the business see

The postponement of the start of the reform is necessary in order to make all the required changes to the bill, said Petr Bobrovsky, chairman of the Upakovka technical committee for standardization of Rosstandart. But the new version of the bill still contains an unenforceable provision prohibiting the sale of goods unless they are listed in a specific register of goods and packaging, he notes. We are talking about a ban on the sale of goods and packaging from January 1, 2025 in the event that information about their manufacturers, and not about the goods themselves, is not included in the register, Marta Galicheva, a representative of Abramchenko, retorts. This would implement the polluter pays principle and close the legal gap in which a manufacturer of goods or packaging can evade responsibility for the disposal of waste generated, she said.

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