The Parliament of Ukraine recently adopted a law introducing higher standards, charges and liability for the collection of municipal waste.

The law has been signed by the President and will enter into force upon publication.

The amendments introduced by the law include:

  • An increased administrative fine (2-3 times greater) for violation of waste legislation (about $43-170 for individuals, $106-213 for private entrepreneurs and companies' officers);
  • The clarification of the procedure for identification and registration of abandoned waste;
  • Increased control over the handling of waste of animal origin;
  • The introduction of the state data bank of waste utilisation technologies available in Ukraine;
  • The establishment of specialised bodies (municipal commissions) responsible for identifying abandoned waste and its owners, making decisions regarding cleaning-up and further using/disposing of abandoned waste, imposing administrative fines on persons guilty of illegitimate waste dumping;
  • The introduction of a competitive approach to selecting the providers of municipal waste collection services for a particular region, which requires local councils to select a service provider through tenders and will require property and land owners/lessees to enter into agreements with the selected provider with respect to collection of their municipal waste;
  • The introduction of a separate municipal waste collection system which obliges (a) the developers of real estate (of all types, including residential, administrative and manufacturing) to create special sites for containers to store and collect municipal waste and (b) the property and land owners/lessees and the waste collection companies to ensure separation at source and separate collection of municipal waste;
  • The restriction of the municipal waste incineration to energy generation purposes only;
  • The prohibition of the development, construction and exploitation of the municipal waste landfills which are not equipped with underground water protection and biogas and filtrate collection and treatment systems;
  • The clarification to the waste disposal charges and setting a general rate for disposal of waste over limits or without special permits of five times the usual rate.

The law also extends the responsibilities of certain authorities in relation to waste handling. For example, the Law grants the State Veterinary Medicine Service control over handling of waste of animal origin; the Ministry of Housing and Communal Housing - authority to coordinate and direct the activities of the local authorities in relation to municipal waste; and the local state administration and self-governmental bodies - authority to impose administrative fines for waste legislation violations.

The law also adds a number of new definitions, including "municipal waste", "solid waste", "liquid waste" and "waste of animal origin".

LAW: Law of Ukraine No. 1825-VI On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine in the Waste Handling Sector, adopted on 21 January 2010.

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The original publication date for this article was 11/02/2010.