MINSK, 20 January (BelTA) – The recycling rate of municipal waste in Belarus increased to 22.6% in 2019, Director of the Secondary Material Resources Operator Natalya Grintsevich said at a briefing in BelTA's press center on 20 January.
“The recycling rate of municipal waste was 10% in 2012. We expect this figure to come at 22.6% in 2019. We see that the recycling rate of municipal waste almost doubled within this short period. The volume of glass collected for recycling tripled, the volume of paper and cardboard went up by 35%,” Natalya Grintsevich said.
She noted that producers and suppliers of goods and packaging are required to collect, dispose of and recycle goods and packaging waste. Producers and suppliers should set up their own waste collection system or sign a relevant contract with the state-owned company Secondary Material Resources Operator and pay for organization of waste collection. “The funds paid by producers and importers for recycling operations were allocated for improving the system of waste collection and recycling, including buying machines and containers for separate waste collection and setting up waste sorting and recycling facilities,” Natalya Grintsevich noted.
Decree No.16 on improving the system of goods and packaging waste management has introduced amendments to the waste collection system. The amendments provide for using waste collection systems at enterprises to collect paper and cardboard packaging, which had not been envisaged in Decree No.313. Enterprises have also been granted the right to unite and organize separate waste collection together without having to pay compensation. Also previously the decree stipulated that an enterprise must organize waste collection, although this may be economically impractical for small enterprises.
The amendments also concern cases of waiving the requirement to organize collection, disposal and recycling of waste. The most significant amendment consists in relieving individual entrepreneurs that work in retail trade or public catering of this task regarding packaging of goods they import.
