In Ukraine, the National Waste Management Strategy has recently been adopted, which provides for an increase in the processing of waste. Is the business interested in this? And the authorities?

Europe is increasingly tightening the requirements for waste management. Recently, the European Parliament adopted legislation, according to which until 2035, landfills should not receive more than 10% of household waste.

However, to date, some EU countries have already achieved such indicators. These are Austria, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden. So, the permissible volumes fixed at the level of legislation are rather a reference point for other countries, which should be equal to the best experience and “reach out” to the appropriate level.

There is no doubt that this is how it will be. After all, the European Union is struggling to ensure that the mountains of waste are not accumulated on its territory, in a comprehensive manner, together. Europe is now improving the Directives, many of which were adopted 10 years ago. In particular, the Waste Directive 2008/98 / EC, adopted back in 2008, provides for the prevention of waste generation, their reuse or recycling.

In the EU, there is a variety of incentives for proper waste management for everyone – and for the population that saves when sorting waste (for containers for separate collection, the producer of goods in packaging and packaging will pay), and for businesses that receive recyclable materials and produce new products from it and packaging, thus including in the so-called “Circular economy”. After all, most of the waste can be recycled – this is paper, and glass, and plastic, and rubber, and wood, and fabrics …

It should be noted that the widespread introduction of the practice of extended producer responsibility (RRP) contributed to the success of Europe. Such a model, which is used in most EU countries, presupposes the producer’s responsibility for the full life cycle of the produced product and packaging or packaging for it. Producers at the same time delegate part of their responsibilities to the organizations that they, producers, create to fulfill their obligations.

Such organizations, at the expense of producers, collect waste, export and further processing in cooperation with local governments and companies that deal with waste on the ground and won a tender for such activities. Business, combining efforts, finances the creation of such companies and their functioning. Producers and importers of products in the packaging make appropriate contributions to keep these organizations extended responsibilities.

What do these companies do? At the expense of producers and importers of goods in packages that, according to the law, are responsible for the “end” of the life cycle of their products, such companies: install containers for separate collection of household waste (in particular for packaging waste), pay for the transportation of separately collected waste to sorting lines where they undergo a grading, and also are engaged in explanatory work with citizens.

In this case, as a rule, the collected secondary raw materials become the property of such companies and they are sold at the market price to processing enterprises – cardboard paper mills, glass factories, plastics processing enterprises.

As a rule, such extended liability organizations are not profitable, i. E. producers do not receive any dividends from this activity.

The so-called. the expanded responsibility of the manufacturer functions in 25 of the 28 EU countries, and covers such types of waste as: packaging waste, household electrical and electronic equipment, batteries, batteries, tires.

For example, in Germany, the municipalities of the bula are responsible for those wastes that are not subject to reprocessing, and producers are responsible for the waste of packaging and packaging that are generated as a result of their activities.

The most successful country in terms of introducing the principle of RRP is the Czech Republic, where EKO-KOM collects returnable packaging (for example, a beer bottle that can be reused up to 11 times) and recycles 80% of packaging waste. It became possible to introduce separate waste collection in cooperation with 6000 thousand municipalities. At the same time, due to the transparency and control of the system, the cost per person per implementation and maintenance of this system is the lowest in comparison with other EU countries.

In 2013, the International Alliance of Advanced Liability of Manufacturers (EXPRA) was established. This non-profit “umbrella” organization headquartered in Brussels represents the interests of the organizations of the extended responsibility of producers, which are created by manufacturers and importers of goods in packaging and packaging and operate on a non-profitable basis. It facilitates the harmonization of rules and procedures existing in different countries, and also coordinates the actions of members of the organization.

So, the organizations that are part of the EXPRA and represent 17 EU countries actually serve 200 million people and collect for reuse or recycling 19 million tons of packaging per year! This amount of packaging will not fall on landfills, but will serve as valuable raw materials for processing.

In Ukraine, too, took the right strategic course – the recently adopted National Strategy for Waste Management provides for an increase in waste processing. By 2025, the processing of waste packaging should reach 60%, and by 2030 – 65%. The strategy should be supported by appropriate new and clear legislation.

But, unfortunately, there are no real changes yet. Probably because the authorities do not really have an interest in fully regulating the process, tightening control, etc. Ministries “nod” to the local authorities, they complain that they do not have the financial capacity to create the necessary infrastructure, etc. It turns out a vicious circle.

The business, producers and importers of goods in the packaging, are really interested in organizing the collection of waste packaging, which are basically the right raw material for processing plants. Many companies headquartered in Europe know how efficiently, both in terms of collection and in terms of costs, it works “out there,” and this is exactly why they want to introduce the practice of the RRP in Ukraine. We see that many companies choose packaging suitable for processing or re-use for their products. It can be said that business is already ready for transition to the model of expanded responsibility, there is only one missing – there is no corresponding decision at the legislative level.

At the same time, some officials, politicians, etc. try to convince us that in fact we need another way. Like, the population is still not ready for sorting household waste, and it is not profitable for business to start sorting lines at this stage. As if not noticing that many already independently organize the sorting and earn money for the improvement of apartment buildings, selling processors to the makkultura or plastic. That entrepreneurs who sort waste, turn into money all new types of waste for themselves (for example, the use of wood for the production of pellets). That the processing industry receives less recyclable material and is forced to even buy a part of such raw materials abroad.

We are trying to convince ourselves that Ukraine needs a simpler path – just burn all waste, since recycling waste into energy is a more profitable business. Or, to impose an additional tax on the utilization of packaging by producers, and the targeted use of this tax is highly doubtful. But in a country that can not boast of an effective fight against corruption, such models do not fit.

That is why Ukrainian producers hope that we will adopt the appropriate legislation, where the conditions for organizations with extended responsibilities will be clearly specified, where there will be no place for corrupt schemes, but there will be mutually beneficial work of interested businesses, local governments and companies that are engaged in sphere of services on household waste management.

There are no simple and quick solutions to waste management, but there are proven, working mechanisms, and one of them, which allows to significantly reduce the amount of waste entering landfills by collecting all those wastes that can be processed, is the expanded responsibility of the producer.