Discussion at the dumpster – Newspaper Kommersant No. 152 (7353) of 08/22/2022

Representatives of business associations (primarily retail) ask Deputy Prime Minister Victoria Abramchenko to hold a new conciliation meeting on the draft standards for the accumulation of MSW, prepared by the Ministry of Natural Resources and the PIC REO. In a joint letter to her, they complain that the ministry ignored the agreements on the mechanisms and timing of the launch of these innovations. Earlier, we recall, the document was criticized by industry experts – the proposed rules lead to the conservation of the practice of multiple overpayments by businesses for waste disposal. The new proposals of associations will not solve, but will only complicate the problem, experts are convinced. They, like part of the business, believe that the solution is to pay for the actual amount of waste, and this can be achieved, including through the courts.

At the disposal of Kommersant was a letter from business to the “environmental” Deputy Prime Minister Victoria Abramchenko criticizing the draft government decree on new rules for determining the standards for the accumulation of MSW for calculating tariffs for their export, prepared by the Ministry of Natural Resources and the PIC REO. The appeal dated August 8, signed by the heads of seven business associations (including retailers – AKORT, Opora Rossii, AKIT), says: despite the instructions of the Deputy Prime Minister on the approval of the draft resolution by business and officials, to assess the regulatory impact, the ministry published a document that “excludes a number of key provisions agreed upon by the developer and the business community, which will not solve the problem of overstating the MSW accumulation standards.”

The objections of the associations followed the criticism of the document by industry experts (see Kommersant of August 8). The project proposes three new calculation methods for determining the standard for MSW accumulation without measurements, which can consolidate a flourishing practice when regional operators demand payment for waste removal according to the standard, and not in fact, experts point out. As a result, citizens overpay for waste disposal at least twice, businesses – dozens of times, and incentives to reduce the generation of MSW disappear, as well as the prospects for digitalization of the industry, which should be based on actual data.

In a letter to the vice-premier of the association, they complain that three points of principle for business have disappeared from the project. The first is a 20 percent limit on the deviation of the standards set by measurements from the standards calculated by the method of comparative analysis, which is designed to reduce “the variation in measurements in neighboring regions with an identical economic structure and waste generation.” The second is a shift in the deadline for bringing the regulations in force in the regions in line with the rules from 2024 (as suggested by the business) to 2025, which will prolong the practice of overcharging payments. The third is a morphological analysis of waste, without which neither their composition nor the volume of fractions is known. As a result, in order for the Ministry of Natural Resources to finally fulfill the instructions of the Deputy Prime Minister, Ms. Abramchenko is asked to hold another conciliation meeting and include the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Economy in the list of executors of the instructions. Kommersant was assured in the vice-premier’s office that the letter from the business would definitely be considered.

Meanwhile, not all observers agree that the proposals of associations can change something qualitatively in the situation with unreasonable tariffs. So, Natalia Belyaeva, a member of the NTS of Rosprirodnadzor and the committee on waste processing and secondary resources of Delovaya Rossiya, sees a reasonable proposal to introduce a 20 percent deviation – it “should serve as a signal to verify the correctness” of the standards. At the same time, it fixes “the unwillingness of companies to confirm the volume and morphological composition of the waste they generate, the name and source of origin of such waste.” “Criticism of the authorities and regional operators is often not documented,” she says. Sodnom Budatarov from the laboratory for the study of the circular economy of the IGSU RANEPA is convinced that the request of associations to average out the non-averaged will only complicate the solution of the problem. The right decision, in his opinion, is to establish an objective formula for all regions: “tons of MSW based on the results of weight control, divided by the number of waste generators.” “The contents of the containers in Volgograd are not much different from the contents in the tank of the Leningrad region and, obviously, cannot be dispersed by a factor of six or more,” he says. Sergei Zavyalov, deputy chairman of the board of the Union of Waste Processing Enterprises of the Ural Federal District, agrees with him: “Associations do not understand the causes of their troubles. All their troubles are in the imposed method of commercial accounting.

Meanwhile, business in the regions has long and successfully challenged the establishment of tariffs based on standards with the help of the Federal Antimonopoly Service and the prosecutor’s office, winning court cases against regional operators (see Kommersant-Online). However, the regions also agree that the problem requires a systematic solution, including through the digitalization of the industry, which Victoria Abramchenko promised when she came to the White House (see Kommersant of January 12, 2021).

Alexey Shapovalov, Diana Galieva