Column by Oleg Sapozhkov on new standards for the formation of MSW

On Friday, September 1, the White House published Government Decree No. 1390 of August 26, 2023 “On the procedure for determining the standards for the accumulation of municipal solid waste,” which caused a strong, albeit still unofficial, reaction in expert and business circles over the weekend. De facto, the document answers the question of who and how will pay for bringing the already failed “garbage reform” several times to a working state. This is a small business (industrial waste is disposed of separately) and citizens, except for the population of large cities: it was apparently considered risky by the Ministry of Natural Resources and the office of the relevant Deputy Prime Minister Victoria Abramchenko to disturb him with an increase in tariffs in the pre-election year.

The scheme is simple: after many years of struggle by SMEs and citizens against overestimation of MSW standards and for payment after the fact (successful lawsuits – a lot), the Ministry of Natural Resources and its subordinate Russian Ecological Operator entered into the rules a norm that even with a successful legal challenge for a year and a half, all “table” values ​​with “correction factors” are equally valid. The calculation formula is unknown, but, judging by the “new” standards for the Kurgan region, which twice challenged them, the coefficients are designed to fix the norms recognized as overestimated; then the cycle can be repeated.

The document includes a number of such moves: for example, it mentions “types of MSW”, to calculate the volume of which, depending on the nature of the business, “adjustment factors” are introduced, although there is no definition of “types” of MSW in the legislation. In business circles, a dozen more controversial points of the resolution were discussed over the weekend: the document did not even pass the regulatory impact assessment – the conclusion about it is negative. The ideas of “data-based government” and digital MSW metering are ideal for each other, but when money is needed for the system of regional operators, the idea of ​​​​taking as much as necessary from the tariffs assigned from above turned out to be more interesting, companies complain, complaining about the lack of attention to the business climate and promising challenge the document in the Supreme Court.

Kommersant’s interlocutors in the executive branch, however, also refer to clear arguments: with the current difference in tariffs between regions (several times) and the need to establish waste accounting, the issue needs to be resolved, and now it is resolved. Before full-fledged digitalization of the industry, it will still not be possible to understand who is right, SMEs and citizens who claim that “garbage” standards are too high, or regional operators who consider them too low, and the issue turns from a business into a social one: if not for the first year, decisions made on additional taxes on 5% of the budget do not destroy the business, it is unlikely that a check for the removal of a garbage container will break it – in the worst case, this will increase the number of illegal dumps and angry citizens. However, there will be a lot of talk during the week.