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Materials - Russian Federation waste managment system; analysis, problems and decisions 
Russian Federation waste managment system; analysis, problems and decisionsSharokhovskaya I.M, Chairman of Nature Management and Ecology Committee, Surgut; Taran F.I, Deputy Chairman of Nature Management and Ecology Committee, Surgut, Yasakov Yu.N, Director of Woodland Park Management Municipal Department, Surgut; Magazine “Waste Recycling” No.1 (13), February, 2008 In terms of the experience gained in ANALYSIS OF RUSSIAN WASTE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM Waste management system involves activities concerned to development and adoption of relevant regulative baseline to be instituted for all the levels of governmental authorities beginning with the federal one, including production activities and authorized monitoring.
Different-level authorities specified in the field of waste management system are given in Table 1.
As per Table 1, any activity concerned to production (italicized) and local operations is subject to local government authorities and owner’s duties. Any activity concerned to normative documentation and control is subject to state authority. In other words, while being charged with waste management production activities any municipal authority is not capable to regulate them. When taking just indirect part in the wastes turnover process, government dissociated itself from any activity related to arrangement of wastes turnover. No decision was made in respect of production and consumption waste management analysis including methodology (unavailability of public cadastre). The current regulating acts tends not to reflect any activity related to development of production and consumption structures (though the society became consumer long ago). Besides, the rlevant guidelines were adopted just in eighteens. As a result, no municipal authority can obtain valid and objective data. Due to unavailability of the above data, development of efficient waste management production program fails advancing (we cannot identify the amount and hazard-to-health and environment generated wastes). Government shall institute standards, grant limits and control the process exclusively for the purpose of shaping the budget. The very factor shall be taken as of major significance. In this case, the matter of the wastes turnover process was not even mentioned. Upon arranging the scheme of fund accumulation, government is not de-facto interested in reduction of generated and recycled wastes (to be resulted in reduction of budget funding). Due to absence of national stimulation system, owners are not interested in wastes recycling either (just pay and you may do anything that you pleased). CONTROL Control is of just formal matter and is subject to compliance of standard to limit. At the year-end, the data about the disposed wastes real volumes shall be checked against the ones of wastes generation developed projects and disposal limits. No waste utilization object data are requested and analyzed. Any factory shows to monitoring authorities only the volumes being suitable for itself, but not the real situation of waste generation and handling. On account of their smallness, local controlling structures are not able to gain true information about all the factories positioned nearby and analyze the matters of production output, location, transportation, waste disposal requirements etc. WASTES CLASSIFICATION Wastes are classified in such a way that all the remains are of hazard nature. Consequently, any waste handling must be licensed. Any category of activity subject to licensing shall be of public’s duty (collection, transportation and utilization). Any process of licensing is concerned to an amount of bureaucratic obstacles, as well as to collection of often contradicting documents. For example, you cannot operate the object without a relevant license, but you cannot gain a license without an object. Besides, by certain terms of licensing conformity with requirements is stipulated, but it is again impossible with any operating object unavailable. This kind of contradictions makes licensing quite problematic. For example, the process of licensing of a certain organization operating a municipal polygon in As per statistics, 90% of existent polygons are not licensed. Though, no license can guarantee quality of company operation. For example, any organization being licensed or unlicensed may give up changing the process of waste transportation and utilization. As well as you can see, availability or unavailability of waste disposal license cannot be taken as criterion for assessment of authority activities as the lasts are not interested in granting a license. It stands to reason that any licensing needs funding. Applicant is obliged to make payment irrespective of resultant (positive or negative). In addition to, one may fail to understand the necessity for waste certificate. Yet again, legislators made their attempts to identify each type of wastes by means of a certain document (certificate). As a result, a great number of people have to identify tins, plastic remains, office wastes, paper and so on, but paying quite an amount of cash. Everyone understands that it makes sense, if the very producer shall be the one granting his certificate, like it is done all over the world. Just look at any imported item package and you will see the recommended means of utilization. WASTES GENERATION Time and again, federal authorities make their attempts to transfer municipal power to any production, commercial or other structural body to be responsible for generation of wastes and respectively be liable for its payments. For example, Rostekhnadzor obliged Nefteyugansk populated with 150 thousand inhabitants was to pay the amount of 5 million rubles per year. As well as you can see, instead of arrangement of wastes management system, government is interested in funding. Irrespective the fact, the law constitutes that population (individual person) is exempted from similar payment, practically, every “inspector” aims to misinterpret the legal requirements. DETERMINATION OF WASTE COMPOSITION This matter is also subject to discussion (e.g. unavailability of waste classifier regulations, unavailability of total classifier etc.). In practice, the same wastes are classified differently and, as a result, they are quite difficult to be determined for their composition and sometimes they cause confusion. As for the medical wastes, there is no way for determination of their management authorities, as Russian Federation Law does not specify this category. Classification of medical wastes and other kinds of remains is differentiated. For the purpose of arrangement of production activity within the bounds of municipal authority, any activities concerned to determination of waste composition (classification), amount, sites of waste generation may be considered as the matters of importance. Unfortunately, this kind of analysis cannot be held on the basis of national assessment data. Since selection and transportation of wastes is the activity the local authorities are responsible for, no questions can emerge with respect to generation of solid domestic wastes, but as for the industrial wastes, some serious problems concerned to determination of waste composition, amount and sites of generation shall be subject to consideration. Different types of renewable wastes are disposed at polygons (e.g. silt sediments that may be used for soil rehabilitation), particularly, if no government support with respect to industrial waste management is available. Disagreement of tariff policy leads to unstable operation of factories that utilize, for example, iron-and-alloy scrap. Profitability of iron-and-alloy scrap being delivered to the factories may be considered as of specific matter, when the above factories raise recyclable material receiving price with the railway tariff to have not been raised yet. Once upon raising the acceptance price the railway tariff is followed, transportation of recyclable materials looses its profitability. COLLECTION In terms of lack of information and fill-scale purposeful popularization of waste selective collection activity, the troubles depend on cultural and social factors rather than the technical ones. In this case, it is obvious that national policy and popularization with respect to economic stimulation cannot be available. TRANSPORTATION It is no easy matter to find any funds for the purpose of obtaining the sufficient amount of recent special-purpose transport. Vehicle age-down regulations do not conform to the real intensive activities that are carried out in the urban environmental conditions, as the ones specify only mileage and depreciation charges cannot provide for timely replacement of basic facilities. Often, wastes are transported by any vehicles, but not by the special-purpose ones resulting in pollution of environment with solid and liquid wastes. The legal special-purpose transport disinfections requirements do not consider for neither specific operating conditions, nor climatic conditions, nor seasons. For example, liquid containing chlorine, to be applied at solid domestic waste polygons for treatment of wheels, is rated by the freezing temperature of -3° Ñ. RECYCLING AND TREATMENT The same troubles may be specified: unavailability of national policy and legislation, economic stimulation and information. LANDFILLING AND UTILIZATION All the waste utilization authorities have been handed to municipality just since the 1st of January 2006, but neither the funds for construction of utilization facilities, no the constructed ones. Municipal administrations had to receive quite a number of yearly-accumulated troubles with respect to management of production and consumption wastes. Due to lack of actual polygons, waste-treating factories, waste recycling plants, as well as for the reason of unavailability of administrative leverage to be applied for creation of waste treatment product utilization conditions, in terms of national economy contracts, any local authority efforts actually are whittle away. With the problems failed to having been resolved for dozen of years and handed over to local authorities, government began monitoring the objects that were inherited from former Soviet Union for their correspondence to current legislation requirements and demanding for the aged waste management problems and troubles to be disposed of at localities. Both the object construction regulations and operation requirements do not take specific character of the area and climatic conditions into account.
Today, it is obvious that government makes no efficient attempts for waste management. It should be noted that any business corporation directly concerned to production activity has quite an amount of waste collection tariff, transportation or utilization costs. Due to the rates of tariff, low profitability does not make it possible for timely refreshing any basic facilities (special-purpose vehicles, containers, utilization objects). With its activity directed to tight regulation of tariffs, Federal Government does not permit to charge all the real costs (including the ones for development). As a result, ones pay, others work and the rest ones that are not connected to waste management activity are funded. RATES OF BUDGET REVENUES AND FINANCING OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION ACTIVITY The rates of
While imposing environmental impact taxes and collecting funds the national preservation bodies sometimes forget about their true environmental protection obligations. As for the financial rates, they leave much to be desired, and basic functions (nature preservation) including ecological monitoring and assessment are pushed to the background. To say in conclusion, it is an obvious matter that funds must be only of financiers and tax officer’s responsibility. They could manage to get this kind of job a success. AND YET WHERE IS MONEY? LET US CALCULATE Let us consider the data about the taxes collected and allocated in SUGGESTIONS We have only two suggestions: |
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