Making Profit Out of Waste
Moderator of the discussion and Director of External Relations Department at OJSC “Baltika Production Company” Irina Fyodorova “painted” a bleak picture of the present situation in the sphere of collecting and recycling municipal solid waste.
“The volume of MSW in Russia was equal to 48 million tons in 2010. But only one thousand companies provide garbage removal services, the system of handling waste and the practices used are at a sufficiently low level: not more than 5% of waste is currently being recycled,” Irina Fyodorova said.
MSW accounts for only 1.2% of the general waste structure, but domestic garbage is a type of waste that is most noticeable to consumers. Therefore, recycling this waste is not only ecologically, but also socially important.
According to the President of the Siberian Ecological Centre Yelena Dubynina, over a third of garbage at illegal dumps of Novosibirsk is comprised of package waste.
We cannot cancel the use of packaging entirely as packages reflect manufacturing concepts of products, protect them from external factors, define appearance of products, convenience of their use, and contain important consumer information. That is why we must minimize the harm done by various packages to the environment.
Garbage recycling strategy has already been adopted in the Novosibirsk Region.
“Most people aren’t yet morally or financially ready to take part in waste recycling activities, therefore regional authorities decided to provide help to small businesses that operate in the sphere of recycling highly dangerous waste,” told us Deputy Chief of the Novosibirsk Region Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Andrey Danilenko.
The research conducted by the Siberian Ecological Centre in the Sovetsky District of Novosibirsk confirms that not so many residents of Novosibirsk are ready to take responsibility for recycling garbage. People under age 22 and pensioners mostly agree to recycling waste, but they also experience difficulties as they don’t know where and how to bring package for it to be recycled, where to take sorted garbage etc.
General Director of LLC “Economic Consultations” Lev Gelman noted that the sphere of waste recycling was currently one of the fastest-growing industries, and said that it was not only important to involve people in the recycling process, but we must as well encourage socially responsible manufacturers to take care of recycling waste.
The Extended Producer Responsibility Principle has been used in the world for about 30 years. This principle allows giving various products with defects or defective package a “second life” at manufacturers’ expense. The mechanism of implementing this principle can be very different – from participation of manufacturers in the recycling process to manufacturers paying special ecological fees to the state.
The experts think that implementing this principle in Russia and encouraging consumers to take part in the process of waste recycling will not only contribute to the reduction of possible environmental impact caused by uncontrolled growth of garbage amount, but also boost the development of a new industry.
The discussion “Package Today: Ecology in Manufacturing and Promotion. Waste Management Responsibility of Manufacturers” was held as part of the exhibition “Package of Siberia” organized at the Novosibirsk Expocentre by ITE Siberian Fair.
