Legislative innovations in the field of mining industry waste management

Waste management is always on the agenda, regardless of the situation in Ukraine. And constant neglect and temporary shifting of this problem can lead to global changes and natural disasters.

At the same time, in order to become a full-fledged member of the EU, Ukraine has committed itself to implementing full-fledged recycling of extractive industry waste right now.

It is possible that in the near future, Ukraine will have new project documents that will need to be created, approved, and implemented by the subsoil user.

How does the situation with waste look like today?

In accordance with Directive 2006/21/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 March 2006 and Directive 2004/35/EC 21 April 2004, Ukraine has made commitments to the European Union to address waste issues.

But in addition to international obligations, we must remember that the future of our generations will depend on how we behave today, including waste management. 

Therefore, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approved the National Waste Management Plan until 2030 by its Resolution №117 dated February 20, 2019. 

To fulfill the requirements of the Directives, the draft law №2207-1D “On Waste Management” was developed. It is also worth noting that it has been repeatedly returned for revision, but nevertheless was adopted on June 20 this year and published in the Holos Ukrainy on July 9.

In particular, this Law introduces modern European approaches to waste management, legislative and financial incentives to increase the volume of waste recycling and reuse. At the same time, it establishes extended producer liability for certain types of waste, which will allow for full financing of their collection and processing by producers, strengthens control over hazardous waste management, and lays the groundwork for the creation of a waste management information system. The Law comes into force one year after its official publication, i.e. on July 9, 2023.

It should be noted that this Law is a framework for a number of other draft laws that will be adopted in the near future, as the problem exists not only in the area of household waste. The following draft laws are worthy of attention: “On Packaging and Packaging Waste”, “On Batteries and Accumulators”, “On Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment”, and “On Waste from the Mining Industry”.

The draft Law “On Mining Waste” proposes to introduce a new technical project document that will need to be created, approved, and implemented by the subsoil user – the Waste Management Plan.

Waste management plan: environmental component.

As of today, there are active discussions on whether subsoil users – extractive companies – will be obliged to prepare a Waste Management Plan, as well as a number of issues related to this document: how it will correlate with the field development project, environmental impact assessment and mining allotment, which authorities should be involved in the approval of the Waste Management Plan, which regulatory authorities should monitor compliance with the requirements and standards set out in the Waste Management Plan. While there is no final decision, it is only awaiting subsoil users, and therefore it is imperative that subsoil users are involved in the process of discussing new legislative requirements. Otherwise, there is a risk of receiving legislative provisions that will be impossible to implement in practice. 

At the same time, the implementation of the new document has both positive and negative aspects. 

Among the advantages are the following:

Ukraine will have a full-fledged and standardized waste management at the site, which will help improve the environment, rational use of subsoil, and reclamation of the license area after the end of production activities. It’s no secret that until now, only conscientious subsoil users have been reclaiming sites, and unfortunately, there are not many of them. Why? It’s simple: only the current subsoil user can be held liable for failure to carry out reclamation, and due to the fact that reclamation is the final type of work on the license area, no one has been held liable so far. What did we get in return? We have received a huge number of abandoned quarries, with tall dumps and mountains of waste around.

Among the negative aspects, it is worth to notice that the implementation of the new document in the course of mining activities will incur additional time and financial costs for subsoil users. Is this a negative point only for the subsoil user? After all, additional bureaucratization of the extraction process can only scare away potential investors and subsoil users. In this case, the state will lose.

We promise to provide you with the specifics of the waste management plan and our vision of the document itself for review in the near future.

Waste management challenges.

It is worth to notice that today, when the country is at war, investor involvement is minimized. And the introduction of additional obligations and requirements for the implementation of planned activities may further complicate the vision of Ukraine as an attractive investment destination. 

At the same time, it should be understood that the attitude to the environment in Ukraine in recent years has been far from perfect, resulting in a significant negative impact on the environment. In addition, the conduct of hostilities on the territory of our country causes damage to the environment. Accordingly, the main task of the authors of the draft law “On Waste from the Extractive Industry” is not to go too far. 

Unfortunately, most subsoil users view subsoil exclusively as a way to make money, but few of them are willing to spend part of their earnings on subsoil reclamation or waste management.

Suggestions.