Meeting of the interdepartmental working group under the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia

On May 11, 2022, a meeting of the interdepartmental Working Group (WG) "Glass" under the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia was held on the issues of reducing the volume of production and consumption waste entering waste disposal facilities, introducing separate waste collection, switching to a circular economy and applying the mechanism of extended producer responsibility in parts of packaging and goods made of glass with the participation of the heads of the committee on ecology of the Association "StekloSouz" of Russia - members of the interdepartmental WG Alexey Savin, chairman of the committee and Sergey Lukyantsev, deputy chairman.

Topic of the meeting: On adjusting the roadmap to reduce the volume of waste entering landfills, introducing separate waste collection, switching to a circular economy and applying the mechanism of extended producer responsibility in terms of processing and disposal of packaging and glass products.

The following issues were discussed:

1. According to the PIC "REO" of the total amount of MSW (65 million tons), glass waste is about 7%, that is, 4.55 million tons.

2. There is a shortage of high-quality cullet in the market of secondary raw materials resulting from the disposal of glass waste, and there is also a high demand for secondary raw materials.

3. The participants of the working group came to an agreement regarding the stage of glass waste disposal. When recycling glass waste, they are cleaned from additional impurities, crushed, washed, dried, separated by color in order to obtain secondary raw materials "cullet", which have a quality suitable for recycling.

4. We drew attention to the need to install a separate container for collecting and accumulating glass waste in places (sites) of MSW accumulation in order to extract the maximum amount of secondary resources.

5. The accumulation of glass mirrors is not allowed together with glass containers and sheet glass, as a result of which the accumulation of such waste should be carried out separately, for example, at collection points for secondary resources.

6. The necessity of carrying out an analysis of the environmental hazard of glass mirrors and the economic feasibility of their involvement in the secondary circulation is noted.

7. A position was outlined on the need to implement the possibility for waste management operators to conclude contracts directly with the PEC "REO" for the collection and transportation of separately accumulated waste.

8. The need for legislative consolidation of the concepts of "container for separate collection of waste" and "waste from the use of goods" was noted.

9. The need was noted for setting targets for regional authorities to provide the territories of settlements with collection points for glass waste, with the determination of their quantity, based on the morphological composition of MSW and their share in the municipal waste of a particular territory, with their subsequent increase in relation to the established recycling standards and availability of existing recycling facilities.

10. Measures to support organizations that carry out separate collection of waste from individuals.

11. The participants of the working group came to a common opinion regarding the inexpediency of introducing a deposit value system and using reusable packaging at the current moment.

12. Discussed the issue of organization and development of the system of environmental education, education and formation of environmental culture of the population.

The specialists of "StekloSouz" of Russia expressed their position and made proposals from the Association to correct the roadmap.

Currently, "StekloSouz" is preparing materials for the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia to continue work as part of an interdepartmental WG.

As you know, the interdepartmental WG was approved by the Order of the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia (more).

Press Center "StekloSouz"