The Ministry of Economy, after a new attempt by the interested ministries, the Russian Environmental Operator (PPK REO) and business to agree on the restart of the institute of extended producer responsibility for waste (ROP), criticized the relevant draft law of the Ministry of Natural Resources. The agency supported the arguments of business, stating the inflationary danger of the proposed eco-collection system and the unwillingness of the ROP to restart from the beginning of 2022. As Kommersant suggested, the solution that the government is leaning towards is the removal of disagreements in manual mode. It is proposed to implement it on the instructions of Deputy Prime Minister Victoria Abramchenko by the forces of branch ministries.Against the background of the fact that the Ministry of Natural Resources( MPR), the PPK REO and representatives of 30 business associations failed once again to resolve differences on the draft law accompanying the restart of the ROP mechanism in the Russian Federation (see Kommersant of August 24), it turned out that the Ministry of Economy (in it, according to Kommersant, they were very dissatisfied with the fact that they were not invited to the last meeting) took the side of business in this conflict. The department’s published conclusion of August 13 on the draft law of the MPR and the CPC, made on the basis of an analysis of the arguments of 30 business associations, actually lists the arguments of the latter, in particular, about unenforceable standards and penalties for their non-compliance, the purpose of which business considers to increase fees. The Ministry of Economy also allowed the possibility of business going into the shadows due to the compulsion to connect it to the Unified State Examination of UOIT and the increase in prices for final products. Of the above arguments, the “inflationary” one is the most ambiguous: a year ago, the Ministry of Economy believed that the introduction of ROP would not increase final prices in the Russian Federation by more than 0.1–0.2 percentage points, but now it expects a stronger effect.The methodology for calculating eco-collection rates, which the Ministry of Natural Resources sent to the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Industry and Trade for approval, did not clarify the possible impact on prices. Although it is expected to include everything that is possible — both operational and capital expenses (the latter, as Kommersant has already noted, are already partly borne by citizens in payment for the services of regoperators), and various increasing coefficients designed to reduce the use of hard-to-recover and illiquid fractions.However, as noted by Sergey Zavyalov, an expert of the laboratory for the study of the fundamentals of the closed-cycle economy of the RANEPA, this technique can be applied only to an individual company and can not be attributed either to the industry, or even more so to the economy as a whole.The industry reference books of the best available technologies could become a benchmark for the development of a working methodology, but this path probably turned out to be too difficult for the Ministry of Natural Resources (in general, the department has recently been making a lot of initially impassable documents, see Kommersant of August 30). With Mr. Zavyalov�Obviously, business representatives also agree. So, Anton Guskov from “SKO Electronics Recycling” says at least about the need to differentiate approaches to the establishment of increasing coefficients. “It is unfair to apply an average rate for everyone,” says Lyubov Melanevskaya from RusPec. In response, the Ministry of Natural Resources yesterday cited an “eco-catastrophic” counterargument: “The volume of MSW formation is growing annually, this provokes the risks of garbage collapses and deterioration of the environmental situation. Without the rapid launch of the reform, the payment for the increasing volume of waste will fall on citizens, which the government and the president of the country have repeatedly opposed.” And the head of the department, Alexander Kozlov, warned (including the governors): landfills are overflowing in 20 regions, “if this problem overwhelms the cities, it will not seem enough to anyone.”So far, the problems of garbage collapses, we recall, were solved by distributing budget billions to regional operators — notable players in the current configuration of the industry, who remain in the shadows against the background of the discussion about ROP. Today, they are the main beneficiaries of the” suspended ” state of the reform, designed to reduce the volume of MSW formation, including through the allocation of recyclable materials from garbage. Their income, we recall, directly depends on the volume of garbage taken out.According to Kommersant, Industry Deputy Prime Minister Victoria Abramchenko should give instructions to all relevant departments to resolve disagreements with industry business associations. The solution will help to remove the industry risks of ROP and provide a differentiated approach to the system (including in terms of the timing of the transition period), which companies insist on. Obviously, in this case, the system will not be launched from January 2022, but the White House still expects to launch it by the middle of next year.Alexey Shapovalov
