The Ministry of Natural Resources proposed to cancel fees from the population for separate garbage

The Ministry of Natural Resources finalized the concept of extended producer responsibility (ROP), proposing to zero tariffs for households to collect waste collected separately, and to allow businesses to dispose of their goods and packaging independently if they have their own facilities.

RBC has a copy of the document prepared by the department. Its authenticity was confirmed by a federal official and several employees of companies that were at a meeting at the Ministry of Natural Resources on Thursday, March 5. A representative of the ministry confirmed to RBC that the head of the Ministry of Natural Resources, Dmitry Kobylkin, held a meeting with business representatives on the concept of ROP. “The recommendations and comments of the business will be considered and reasonably taken into account in the final revised draft concept, which will be sent to the government,” the ministry said in a statement. On behalf of President Vladimir Putin, the concept of improving the ROP institution should be prepared by March 31.

What changes did the Ministry of Natural Resources

The previous version of the extended producer responsibility concept was sent to the government on February 25. But it had to be finalized. Among the measures proposed by the Ministry of Natural Resources in a revised version of the document are the following:

• For the population, tariffs for the collection of waste collected separately will decrease, up to zeroing. In the previous version of the concept, separate collection suggested a reduction in tariffs by at least 50% of the tariffs for the export of mixed waste.
• The Ministry of Natural Resources allowed the business to independently utilize goods and packaging instead of paying a fee if the companies have their own facilities for these purposes. In the previous version of the ROP concept, the possibility of independent recycling was not provided for manufacturers, they in any case had to pay an environmental fee, even if there was an infrastructure for recycling.
• Companies will have the opportunity to create recycling capacities at their own expense in one or two years and offset these investments against environmental fees. “In relation to organizations that invested in the creation of infrastructure and the acquisition of equipment for the collection, transportation and disposal of ITU (waste from the use of goods. - RBC) until the concept was approved, in 2021 and 2022 there is an opportunity to reduce the amount of ecological fees paid by the amount of such investments” , - the document says.
• Different eco-collection rates will be developed for different types of packaging. Disposal of packaging created from primary raw materials will cost more than from recycled materials. “It is necessary to provide greater benefits from the disposal and use in the production of goods and packaging of secondary resources obtained from waste products and packaging, compared with the use of primary resources,” the revised concept says.

The representative of the Deputy Prime Minister Victoria Abramchenko told RBC that the updated concept of the ROP was not yet received in the apparatus. The document should be delivered next week.

What will happen to tariffs for the population

Putin, in his annual address to the Federal Assembly in January 2020, instructed by June 1 to approve a roadmap for the separate collection of municipal solid waste (MSW) in Russia. Separate waste collection has already been introduced in several regions of Russia, in particular in Moscow, Moscow region, Nizhny Novgorod and Mordovia. After the entry into force of the new ROP mechanism, the business should take over the payment of separately collected waste.

“Today, the population pays 180 billion rubles. about 3 billion rubles per year for the treatment of municipal solid waste, business payments in the framework of the implementation of environmental protection measures as an environmental fee. The new concept of the EPR should change the situation, start the mechanisms of a cyclical economy, restore justice - put into practice the principle “the polluter must pay,” Kobylkin said.

The authorities of the Moscow Region already in 2020 promised to reduce the tariff for waste collection in case of separate collection. “For individual housing projects, the payment for garbage collected separately will decrease by 20%,” said Deputy Chairman of the Moscow Region Government Yevgeny Khromushin at the end of January. “There are incentive tools. The simplest is that if you sort the garbage, then you pay less. This is an understandable incentive that has already been introduced in several regions, ”Ilya Gudkov, director general of the Russian Environmental Operator, said in an interview with RBC.

But regional operators warn that costs increase due to the separate collection of garbage: the organization of waste collection separately costs more and is now not taken into account in the current tariff. If you take into account these operator’s expenses, the tariff will increase, explained RBC director of EcoStroyResursa (regional operator in the Samara region) Mikhail Zakharov. According to him, the proceeds from the sale to processors of raw materials that operators collect are not yet covering the costs of organizing the collection and sorting of waste.

Regional operators for solid municipal waste management do not yet have economic incentives to introduce separate collection and increase the share of secondary raw material selection, confirms Polina Vergun, chairman of the reform committee for the MSW Support Industry of Polka Waste. “If the additional costs of transporting separately collected waste will be taken into account and paid for through subsidies from the ROP, then an increase in the share of waste disposal and a reduction in the tariff for the population are possible,” she concludes.

How the ROP mechanism works now

In Russia, the mechanism of extended producer responsibility to stimulate the disposal of goods and packaging has been adopted since 2014, but it does not work in the current version. As the authors of the updated concept indicate, now no more than 2.5 billion rubles are going from the business. per year in the form of eco-collection with an expected income of up to 136 billion rubles. in year. In addition, some companies falsify reporting or do not provide it at all. Instead of paying eco-collection, manufacturers now have the right to utilize about 15% of the goods or packaging they produce, and import does not fall under this rule at all.

What will give recycling products to companies

Natalya Belyaeva, deputy head of Business Russia’s environmental management and ecology committee, notes that manufacturers often do not identify with their product utilizers, although many of them are involved in recycling. These are enterprises of the metallurgical, cable and paper industries, as well as glass factories. “The independence of the disposal of product residues can be ensured by the enterprises themselves. Thus, they will reduce their eco-payments through the use of recycled materials, ”she said. According to Belyaeva, manufacturers of packaging and other goods should use more recycled materials.

The packaging of goods in the new ROP concept will become the primary object of regulation from 2021 - manufacturers will have to pay for it from the 100% recycling standard. Packaging takes up about 50% of the waste, Kobylkin noted. However, the Association of Glass Packaging Manufacturers considers it unlawful the main postulate of the concept, according to which packaging manufacturers will pay the eco-collection, rather than ordering producers, as is now provided. “The terms of reference for the production of containers, namely the type, color, weight, wall thickness, are sent to us by the manufacturer of the goods. The packaging manufacturer cannot control the geography of distribution of goods in its packaging, ”said Elena Emelyanova, executive director of this association, to RBC.

Source: https://www.rbc.ru/