The government denied the rise in prices for alcohol and cosmetics due to waste disposal

The office of Deputy Prime Minister Victoria Abramchenko and the Russian Environmental Operator denied the rise in prices for goods due to waste disposal standards that will be introduced for importers.

“In different countries of the world, there is a mechanism for the responsibility of importers for imported goods and packaging, in many cases the systems are limited exclusively to eco-collection without the possibility of self-disposal. In Russia, as Deputy Prime Minister Victoria Abramchenko has repeatedly emphasized, the ROP does not have a fiscal goal, it is aimed at ensuring the real disposal of goods and packaging, and reducing the environmental burden.

We believe that the importer, when importing goods into the country, must give guarantees for the subsequent independent disposal of his goods or pay an eco-fee. Such a mechanism will remove the existing blind spot when importers of goods report two years after the import of goods into the country, in many cases the legal entities no longer exist. At the same time, the goods and packaging imported by them are sent to landfills.

We see no prerequisites for price increases, business responsibility has existed for more than a year. Now we are talking about the establishment of a transparent system and the introduction of control over the implementation of their obligations by businesses,” said a representative of the Deputy Prime Minister.

The General Director of the Russian Ecological Operator PIC noted that the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) system operates in different countries. And the system is successfully financed where the stages for identifying companies that are obliged to participate in financing are clearly defined.

“This makes it possible to identify those who introduce packaging into circulation, but do not pay for the implementation of the RPR, and also to avoid double payments. Responsible companies know how much packaging will end up as waste in a particular country or region. Thus, it is possible to determine the amount of the fee that the supplier or importer is obliged to pay to the operator of the ERP system for the collection and disposal of waste in accordance with the composition of the packaging materials put into circulation,” Butsaev added.

According to him, manufacturing companies play a central role in the formation of packaging waste. They sell imported or locally produced products in packaging, supply packaged goods to the markets of countries or regions. The easiest way to identify companies that are required to pay a fee under the PPR is at this stage of the sale.

ROP in Russia was launched in 2015. Manufacturers were supposed to recycle their waste or pay for recyclers to do it. However, in the end, the amount of the environmental fee turned out to be extremely small - 3.7 billion rubles, while 193 billion rubles were received from the population for the garbage disposal service. There were also reports of falsified disposal certificates, waste was disposed of on paper, but in reality, companies took it to a landfill.

As a result, the RPR Concept was approved in December last year. It obliges manufacturers to be 100% responsible for the disposal of packaging. They can engage in recycling themselves, conclude contracts with specialized organizations, or pay an environmental fee.

Source: https://360tv.ru/

Reference:

The StekloSouz Association of Russia is working hard to implement the Concept of Extended Responsibility for Producers and Importers of Goods and Packaging (ERP) with the Russian Environmental Operator (PPK REO) on issues of vital interest to the glass industry.