According to the Article 1of the Law of Ukraine “On wastes” – wastes are any substances, materials and objects which are formed in the process of human activity and cannot be further used in the places where they were formed or revealed. Their owners have to get rid of them through utilization or removal;
hazardous wastes are wastes characterized by such physical, chemical biological or other hazardous features which cause or may cause considerable hazard for the environment and people’s health and which require special methods and means to maintain them.
Article 8 of the Law of Ukraine “On wastes” indicates that wastes are an object of the right to ownership.
The ownership right for wastes can be passed over from one person to another in the order envisaged by the law.
According to the Article 9 of the same law, citizens of Ukraine, foreigners, persons without citizenship, enterprises, institutions and organizations of all forms of ownership, territorial communities, the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the state are subjects of the ownership right for wastes.
Territorial communities are owners of wastes which are formed on objects of municipal property or are located on their territories and do not have an owner or their owner is unknown (derelict wastes).
The state is the owner of wastes which are formed on objects of state property or are situated on the territory of Ukraine and do not have an owner or when their owner is unknown (except for the wastes mentioned in the second chapter of this article) and also in other cases envisaged by the law. The Cabinet of the Ministers of Ukraine manages the wastes which belong to state property on behalf of the state and according to the law.
Subjects of the ownership right own, use and manage wastes within the limits determined by law.
Article 10 of the Law determines that in case of privatization of state enterprises activities of which resulted in accumulation of certain amount of wastes, new owners acquire the right of ownership for wastes and duty as for compensating the harm caused by wastes for people’s health, property of physical and legal persons and the environment, unless conditions of the privatization of these enterprises envisage different procedure according to the law.
Conditions of privatization may envisage joint responsibility of previous owner and present owner of the privatized enterprise.
According to the Article 11 of the Law, if there is a change of owner or user of a land lot on which wastes are located, the problem of ownership for the wastes is solved separately and according to the Law.
According to the Article 12 of the Law, wastes which have no owner or the owner of which is unknown are considered to be derelict. The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine establishes the procedure of revealing and accounting derelict wastes. Local executive bodies and bodies of local self-governance are responsible for establishing the regime of using derelict wastes, unless otherwise is envisaged by the law.
Local executive bodies and bodies of local self-governance keep records of derelict wastes and are responsible for complex usage of such wastes, compliance with conditions of their maintenance and prevention of their negative impact on the environment and people’s health.
Owners or users of the land lots on which there have been found wastes that do not belong to them, are obliged to inform about them relevant local executive authorities or a body of local self-governance who are obliged to take actions in order to determine owner of the wastes and class of their hazard, to keep records of them and make decisions as for their maintenance.
By its decree of 3 August 1998 # 1217, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approved the Procedure of revealing and keeping records of derelict wastes according to which:
- Wastes are considered to be derelict if they do not have an owner or their owner is unknown (hereafter – wastes).
- Owners or users of land lots on which wastes were found are obliged to inform about them local executive authorities or bodies of local self-governance.
- An application (communication) from citizens, enterprises, institutions, organizations, and mass-media as well as results of regular inspections of the Ministry of Economy of Resources, sanitary and epidemiological service, local self-governance bodies can serve as grounds for realizing the procedure of revealing wastes and keeping their records.
- Applications (communications) as for facts of revealing wastes are considered on the next regular (or special) sitting of the permanent commission on the issues of maintaining derelict wastes (hereafter – the commission).
- The commission determined amount, composition, properties, costs of the wastes, degree of their hazard for the environment and people’s health and take action to determine owner of the wastes.
- If necessary, law machinery, specialists and experts are involved in order to determine owner of the wastes and to keep records of them.
- According to the results of their work, the commission draws a statement which is given to local state administration of local self-governance body to solve the problem of further maintenance of wastes.
- On the basis of the act of the commission, local state administrations or bodies of local self-governance make a decision as for further maintenance of wastes and if necessary file a suit in order to punish those who are responsible for violations of legislation on wastes and compensation for caused harm.
- If the owner of the wastes is identified, he becomes fully responsible for compliance with conditions of maintaining them and prevention of negative impact of wastes on the environment according to provisions of the Law of Ukraine “On wastes”.
- If owner of wastes is identified, record keeping of these wastes is performed according to Article 26 of the Law of Ukraine “On wastes”.
If wastes have been returned to an owner or to state or municipal ownership, the owners keep records of the wastes according to their established value. Also, additional capital of such legal entity is increased.
Article 26 of the Law of Ukraine “On wastes” defines that all wastes formed on the territory of Ukraine and which are covered by this Law, are subject to mandatory state record keeping and certification.
State record keeping and certification of wastes are performed in the order determined by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.
The system and form of reporting, the order of providing and using information on wastes as well as the order of revising their nomenclature are developed on the basis of state classifier of wastes and are approved by an authorized central executive body dealing with statistics on request of an authorized executive body dealing with wastes maintenance and other interested central executive authorities.
According to Article 27 of the Law “On wastes” with the aim of ensuring collection, refinement, saving and analysis of information on objects of formation, refinement and utilization of wastes, there is a register which includes nomenclature, amounts of formation, quantitative and qualitative characteristics of wastes, information on maintaining them and actions taken in order to decrease the amount of wastes formation and level of their hazard.
The register of objects of formation, refinement and utilization of wastes is updated on the basis of report data from wastes makers, information from authorized executive bodies in the sphere of wastes maintenance.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine determines the order of keeping the register of formation, refinement and utilization of wastes.
Article 33 of the Law declares that storage and elimination of wastes are carried out according to requirements of environmental safety and in the way ensuring maximal usage of wastes or their transference to other consumers (except for burial).
For each place or object of storage or elimination of wastes there is a special passport with indications of names and codes of wastes (according to the state classifier of wastes), their quantitative and qualitative composition, origin as well as technical characteristics of places or objects of storage or elimination and information on methods of control and safe exploitation of these places or objects.
Elimination of wastes is performed according to legislative requirements of environmental safety and with mandatory ensuring of possibilities for utilization or burial of extra products if this is sanctioned by state sanitary and epidemiological service of Ukraine. Storage and elimination of wastes are performed in the places designated by local self-governance bodies with consideration of requirements of land and nature protecting legislation and in the presence of special permissions indicating amount of wastes according to set limits and conditions of their storage.
The places or objects designated for storage and elimination of wastes should be used only for the wastes indicated in the permission.
It is prohibited to mix or bury wastes for utilization of which Ukraine has a technology.
There is a prohibition for unauthorized placement of wastes in underground horizons, on territories of cities and other built-up areas, on territories of natural reserves, in areas of natural, recreational, historical and cultural value, territories within water preserving zones and zones of sanitary protection of water bodies, in other places if it may pose a threat for the environment and people’s health. Subsoil burials are permitted only in exceptional cases according to results of special research and with compliance with all standards, norms and rules envisaged by Ukrainian legislation.
Article 34 of the Law defines requirements for maintaining hazardous wastes:
All hazardous wastes are classified according to degree of their negative impact on environment and people’s health and on the basis of the list of hazardous qualities, and they should be recorded.
Wastes maker determines the class of the wastes according to legal acts approved by a special authorized executive body dealing with the issues of environment and natural resources and with approval from state sanitary and epidemiological service of Ukraine.
A business entity possessing or using at least one object of hazardous wastes is obliged:
- to prevent contamination of the environment and in case of such a contamination to liquidate contamination and its consequences for environment and people’s health;
- to take actions aimed at prevention of emergencies, limitation and liquidation of their consequences and protection of people and environment form their impact;
- to inform executive authorities, local self-governance bodies and population about emergencies on the mentioned object and about actions taken to liquidate their consequences,
- to ensure that exploitation of these objects and transportation of hazardous wastes are performed in compliance with requirements of nature protecting legislation;
- to have a license to perform actions in the sphere of maintaining hazardous wastes;
- to identify objects of maintaining hazardous wastes according to the Law of Ukraine “On objects of high risk”;
- to have a plan of localization and liquidation of emergencies on the object;
- to have a safety declaration;
- to provide information about such objects according to the Law of Ukraine “On objects of high risk”.
If a business entity violates license conditions of maintaining hazardous wastes, the license will be annulled according to the legally set procedure.
Only persons who went through a special professional training, holding a certificate allowing them to work with hazardous substances and having no medical contraindications are allowed to work with hazardous wastes. These persons should get permission from an appointed official of an enterprise, institution or organization.
Transportation of hazardous wastes is allowed only in the presence of their passport and license for maintaining them and in the order envisaged by the legislation on transportation of hazardous loads.
Transportation of hazardous wastes is performed only if the transporter has mandatory civil insurance for harms which may be caused during this transportation. Placement of hazardous wastes is allowed only in specially equipped places and should be performed according to license conditions of maintaining hazardous wastes. It is prohibited to perform any other activity unrelated to maintenance of hazardous wastes on the territory designated for their placement.
Storage of hazardous wastes on territories of enterprises, institutions, organizations as entities of economic activity is performed in the order established by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.
Enterprises, institutions, organizations as entities of economic activity on territories of which hazardous wastes are stored belong to objects of high risk according to the law.
According to the law, responsibility of economic entities which possess or use at least one object of maintaining hazardous wastes for harm which it may cause by emergencies on such objects to life, health, property of physical and legal bodies is subject to mandatory insurance.
