Regions may be given powers to deal with non-hazardous construction waste

The capital’s mayor’s office proposes to transfer to the regions the authority to regulate the management of waste of hazard classes III–V, not related to municipal solid waste (MSW). A representative of the Moscow government apparatus announced this at an extended meeting of the State Duma Committee on Ecology. From his presentation it follows that this is a legislative initiative of Sergei Sobyanin. However, it has not yet been formalized into a bill, an interlocutor in the lower house of parliament explained to Vedomosti.

“The committee proposed creating a group to develop a common decision, to which all participants in the meeting are invited. The result should be the introduction and adoption of a bill – the regions need this document in order to build a working and transparent system,” wrote the head of the committee, Dmitry Kobylkin, in his Telegram channel. As the deputy chairman of the committee, Alexander Kogan, explained to Vedomosti, the working group will develop the text of the bill. “We need informed decisions. A working group created at the site of the State Duma Committee on Ecology will look for them,” he added. The deadline for submitting the finished document has not yet been established, his assistant clarified. Vedomosti sent a request to the Moscow mayor’s office.

Currently, non-MSW waste is not the responsibility of the regional operator. As a rule, this is waste from construction and major repairs, used motor oil and tires, waste products of livestock and poultry, household appliances and electronics, textiles and paper. Waste that is not part of MSW must be exported under a separate agreement with a waste recycler or other organization that has a license. The obligation to conclude such an agreement rests directly with the waste generator.

The essence of the proposal of the capital authorities is that the transportation of such waste should only be carried out by persons included in the register of operators, a representative of the Moscow government apparatus said at a meeting of the working group.

“The regions began to receive requests regarding waste of hazard classes III–V: tires, wastewater, ash and slag, waste from construction and demolition. It is clear what to do with MSW: they are fully regulated. What to do with other types of waste? – says Denis Butsaev, General Director of the Russian Environmental Operator (REO). The initiative proposes to include information about these wastes in territorial schemes, as well as to create a register of facilities for handling such waste and a register of transporters, Butsayev explained to Vedomosti. Moreover, he says, regions will be able to set their own rules for this waste – how they should be handled, taking into account the needs of the region itself. Also, according to him, regions could create regional information systems for waste management or use the federal information system for waste management, which is currently being created by REO.

“The changes we are proposing are aimed at covering as many types of waste as possible in terms of regulation. This will not only make the industry more transparent, but also take additional steps in building a circular economy,” he concluded.

Every year in Russia, 8.5 billion tons of waste of hazard classes III–V are produced, Deputy Minister of Natural Resources Dmitry Tetenkin noted during the discussion. He emphasized that the federal center needs to understand whether there will be any misunderstandings and contradictions with the competencies of the subjects if Moscow’s proposal is accepted. In addition, the ministry raises questions about the very principle according to which regions will regulate the circulation of only those wastes that they want to deal with. In this regard, Tetenkin proposed implementing this initiative not in the format of legislative changes to the law “On Production and Consumption Waste” and the mandatory introduction of this norm, but in the format of a separate Federal Law for conducting such an experiment in individual regions.

Rosprirodnadzor opposed the transfer of powers to the regions to regulate the management of waste of hazard classes III–V that are not related to MSW, agency representative Semyon Zagorodnikov said at a committee meeting. Issues related to the procedure for organizing the appeal, in this case, “may or may not be established” at the discretion of the region, Zagorodnikov explained. The control agency, in turn, proposed developing uniform requirements for all at the federal level.

Deputy Director of the Department of Permitting and Interdepartmental Cooperation of the Ministry of Construction Vladimir Gerasimchuk pointed out that in the preliminary text of the initiative there is no definition of the concept of “construction waste”: “It will turn out that each entity will regulate the circulation of its own waste, which it, at its discretion, will call such.”

The Ministry of Finance has a question of financing the necessary capacities for processing, disposal and storage of waste. “It is not yet clear who will pay for this: is business ready to pay for it, or will it be paid by the subject or [федеральный центр]? – Pavel Tonchev, deputy director of the departmental department of budget policy in economic sectors, asked his colleagues a question. If a federal information system has been created, then it is not accepted “to implement interaction [субъектов и центра] develop more than 80 other formats of information systems,” noted Ekaterina Revenkova, Deputy Director of the Information Technology Department of the Ministry of Finance. In addition, according to her, it is not clear what subjects should do if they do not have one now.

At the same time, representatives of the regions supported the initiative. A representative of the Moscow region noted that there is no problem in terms of interaction of information systems, since the regions have experience in implementing the state information system (GIS) for housing and communal services: “Nobody asked how much money is used to maintain the GIS for housing and communal services in the regions and how we supply them there data”. The Minister of Ecology of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, Denis Egorov, added that in 2022, 885 landfills were eliminated in the region, the majority of which consisted of construction waste. “Right now we are limited by a lack of authority,” he shared. Representative of the Leningrad Region Waste Management Committee Anastasia Kuznetsova supported the project, noting that “the problem of unauthorized landfills and construction waste management is acute.”

The regions indeed have a request to transfer the powers of the subjects, Rashid Ismailov, Chairman of the Russian Ecological Society, confirmed to Vedomosti. “It would be more effective at the subject level without federal participation to regulate the circulation of other types of waste – demolition and construction, tires, sewage sludge, etc. But accounting for such types must be integrated into federal systems,” he explained. Decentralization of powers to regulate waste management and its distribution among places is the right initiative, says Public Commissioner for Environmental Affairs Mikhail Zamarin. “The regions know more than the center, not the whole agenda reaches it, there is a certain [региональная] local specifics,” he explained to Vedomosti.