Alexander Shadrikov: "The Ministry of Ecology has developed a draft federal law on waste management regulation, which will make this area transparent"
A round table on waste management was held in Kazan today. The organizer and moderator was Ilya Wolfson, a deputy of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation.
The participants of the round table were Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Tatarstan Alexander Shadrikov, Deputy Minister of Construction, Architecture and Housing Alexey Frolov, Deputy Chairman of the Executive Committee of Kazan Iskander Giniyatullin, representatives of environmental movements, regional operators. As the Minister of Ecology noted at the very beginning of his speech, a lot of questions have accumulated in the waste management industry. The reform is going on all over the country, the approach to waste management itself has been changed, primarily with solid municipal waste. However, there are systemic problems that need to be solved in the very near future.
"Appeals about the presence of cluttered territories are received by the Ministry throughout the year through all our open communication channels – since January, 5,656 such complaints have already been received – this is the majority of all appeals. And often unauthorized landfills are construction waste. In most subjects of the Russian Federation, the share of landfills of construction waste is about 80%, in Tatarstan it is 61%. Identifying the owner of such waste and forcing him to eliminate landfills is a long and complicated process." As an example, Alexander Shadrikov cited landfills on Gudovantseva St. in Kazan and a landfill in the village of Derbyshki. These huge cluttered territories are pain points on the map of the capital of Tatarstan. In both cases, construction waste was stored.
According to preliminary calculations, the damage caused to the environment is estimated in the millions. All materials were sent to the Volga-Kama Interregional Department of Rosprirodnadzor under its jurisdiction. As the minister noted, this happens, among other things, due to insufficient regulation in the legal field. Currently, the problem of making changes to federal legislation is acute.
The Ministry of Ecology has developed a draft federal law "On Amendments to the Federal Law "On Production and Consumption Waste" in terms of regulating the management of construction and repair waste. It provides for specific powers of the subjects of the Russian Federation.
"One of the important aspects should be the mandatory introduction of an automated information system for accounting and control of construction waste at the stages of their technological cycle. Such systems already exist, and one of them was tested in the republic. The automated system makes it possible to make the entire cycle of construction waste transparent, to establish cooperation between educators, transporters, processors, while ensuring the transfer of ownership of such waste," the head of the environmental protection agency announced in the report the details of the draft law, which has already been sent to the State Council of Tatarstan for consideration. If it is approved and adopted, the republic will be able to effectively solve the problems of construction waste management at the regional level and create conditions for the development of the construction materials production industry from waste.
The minister also focused on one more problem – these are landfills of MSW, which are now being filled and the resource of their filling is coming to an end. Objects that have exhausted the resource require reclamation measures.
"The issues of waste management, and most importantly the decisions made in this industry, are really very important. It is necessary to create new infrastructure facilities, stop the operation of unauthorized landfills and landfills that have exhausted their capacity. Our common task is to ensure a balance between industrial development and the preservation of a comfortable living environment, starting primarily with our personal attitude to environmental problems," the minister said.