The press service of the Ministry of Ecology continues to state obvious problems, while saying that Ukraine is not ready for separate collection of garbage. The department notes that in the country at the moment there are no opportunities for introducing sorting of solid household waste. Semerak says that in Ukraine there are no containers for such sorting, and they need about 50 thousand. The minister proposes to solve the problem in a favorite way – increasing charges for the disposal of garbage.

Commenting on the possibility of introducing a model for separate collection of solid household waste in 2018, Semerak noted that a bill was registered in the parliament, which provides for the possibility of transferring the term of the prohibition of waste disposal in Ukraine for one year. The ministry, he said, categorically does not support such an initiative. However, it is not necessary to say that the Ministry of Natural Resources has any plan that is at least compatible with the current situation. The minister still says that first, it is necessary to adopt the National Strategy of Waste Management, and only then the laws that fill it. But the development of this strategy was entrusted to the profile ministry in 2016, and only recently Semerak said that the Strategy had allegedly been approved and will be submitted to the government in the near future.

Such a reaction on the part of Semerak has already ceased to be ridiculous. Constant building of strategies, stretching for a long time, did not bring any visible and tangible result. The only component of the activity in which the Ministry of Natural Resources is successfully fulfilling and even exceeding the plans is issuing licenses to fictitious processing enterprises and building this market for the interests of their friends and business partners.

According to the norm prescribed in the Law on Waste, from January 1, 2018 Ukrainians will be obliged to sort household waste, however, representatives of the Ministry of Natural Resources assure that it is impossible to implement the requirements of the law within the specified time. And again a question arises to the Ministry: is it impossible or does the profile ministry have no political or any other will to do this?

To date, there are many initiatives for sorting waste originating from representatives of society and various organizations. After all, the Ukrainians themselves understand – the sorting of waste is not just “for hours,” the situation with waste in the country is simply blatant! This was clearly demonstrated by the absolutely helpless attempts of responsible persons to justify themselves for the tragedy in Lviv.

But instead of taking real steps to get out of the “junk crisis” that has not gone anywhere – according to environmentalists, the garbage accumulated in Ukraine can completely cover the territory of some European countries such as Cyprus or Denmark – the Ministry of Natural Resources is engaged in an endless and inconclusive “developing strategies,” blaming their opponents for “investigations into the media.”