Kyiv, Ukraine

At the end of November 2021, after a one-year hiatus, the Parliamentary Sub-Committee on Waste Management launched the preparation of the Bill On Waste Management for the second reading in Verkhovna Rada (the Parliament of Ukraine). This is the third attempt to move the Ukrainian legislation on waste management forward since 2014.

The importance of the Bill can hardly be overestimated. The Law on Waste enacted back in 1998 is no longer up to the challenges involved with modern waste management and requirements. Ukraine generates up to 300kg of waste per person per year. With a population of 41.3 million this equals 12.39 billion tons a year. Waste reduction provisions of the 1998 Law are ignored and about 94% of the waste is landfilled, creating a serious environmental problem for the country.

In 2020, Ukraine managed to recycle and recover only 6.3% of solid household waste, while neighboring Poland recycles more than 33%. Domestic recycling businesses are forced to import salvage to use up their production capacities.

The Bill On Waste Management is supposed to implement new waste management practices based on the best EU standards, including producers' responsibility for reduction of waste generated by their products (the so-called extended producer responsibility - EPR). It will tackle the problem of waste in general, minimize landfilling, increase re-use and recycling, attract investors and introduce modern waste management technologies.

Enactment of the Bill into law might also help solve the long-lasting conflict between recycling and waste recovery businesses and those businesses engaged in landfilling and waste incineration; a conflict which results in a low percentage of recycling and considerable landfilling of waste.

Aretera Advisor Oleksiy Kononov prepared an overview of the current status of the Waste Management reform in Ukraine, the key stakeholders from the government and business sides, and key takeaways for international businesses.