On 10-11 November, Kyiv hosted an International practical conference “Road map for Ukraine in the sphere of waste management and electronic governance” organized by the International charitable organization “Environment-People-Law” (EPL) with support from the Embassy of Sweden.The conference gathered concerned authorities, representatives of waste treatment enterprises from Ukraine and other European countries, civil society representatives, experts in the sphere of waste management and electronic governance.
“The conference aims to be a platform for discussion and implementation in Ukraine of leading Swedish and European technologies and experience of waste management. Only 1% of waste is landfilled in Sweden while the rest is treated, incinerated, composted. This experience could become a good beginning of decreasing of the load on the environment through introduction of a good model of waste management in Ukraine. It will help turn waste not only into secondary resources but also into energy resources, which is extremely important now,” said Andreas von Beckerath, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Sweden to Ukraine.
“The Swedish government sees as a priority implementation of activities in the sphere of environmental protection in general and waste management and electronic governance for environmental protection in particular,” mentioned Christina Danielsson, Head of the Section for Reform Support of the Embassy of Sweden in Ukraine. “Legislative reforms, implementation of pilot projects in Ukraine are often initiated by CSOs that are also within focus of the Embassy of Sweden in Ukraine.”
A representative of Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, Erika Nygren, informed the participants that Sweden started the reform in the sphere of waste management in the 1950s and special focus was put on hazardous waste management.
“It has been a year since Ukraine’s signing of the Association Agreement with the European Union. On Ukraine’s agenda, there are 30 EU legal acts that the Ukrainian legislation on environmental protection and rational use of natural resources has to be harmonized with. Currently the Ministry of Environment of Ukraine has developed a new draft law “On Waste” that would include provisions of the EU Framework Directive on Waste,” emphasized in her speech Hanna Vronska, Deputy Minister of environment and natural resources of Ukraine for European integration. “Undoubtedly, the Swedish experience in the sphere of waste management is progressive and can serve as an example of building the right model on the national level.”
Polish colleagues shared their experience in waste management. According to Marta Smal’-Chudzik, director of the department of environmental protection at Lublin municipality, starting from 2012 and until today the amount of landfilled waste decreased by 70%.
“Without a clear final goal, direct objectives and a national strategy, the system of waste management will not be successful, it will be fragmental and only bring short-term result,” emphasized Claes Ryden, the director of Swedish company MRT System International AB.
The sphere of waste management and electronic governance in Ukraine is in critical state. EPL cannot stand aside when the country is turned into total waste basket. The reality in the sphere of waste management is dim: statistics on waste including hazardous waste is distorted, there are hindrances for citizens’ access to environmental information that is supposed to ensure security for each of us. Currently it is vitally important to create an effective national system of waste management based on the principles of waste prevention, segregated collection, transportation to treatment facilities and their transformation into energy and material resources. It is necessary to create a database of environmental information,” mentioned Olena Kravchenko, EPL Executive director.
“The system of segregated collection of domestic waste functions in Lviv. We have put containers for segregated collection of glass, plastic, paper and for mixed waste,” informed the participants the director of Ave Lviv company Oleh Hayovyshyn. “Only introduction of new rules of waste collection, functioning of tariffs and extended producer’s responsibility will enable us to make positive changes and approach European achievements in this field.”
“Annually Ukraine produces about 14 mln tonnes of solid domestic waste, 95% of which are landfilled while in Sweden 0,7% of waste are landfilled. In Poland over the last three years landfilling decreased by more than twice,” added Alla Voitsikhovska, EPL environmentalist. “Currently in Ukraine there are no incentives for investments into technologies of waste treatment, incineration, composting and energy production. There is no control over availability of technological facilities for waste treatment and no control over actual disposal of hazardous waste by licensed enterprises.”
“Only application of conceptually new approaches in the sphere of waste management in compliance with the best world practices, elimination of gaps in the sphere of waste management, approximation of norms and standards to international law in the sphere of waste management, involvement of the public at all stages of reforms and legislative regulation will help Ukraine to avoid waste collapse,” summarized Olha Melen’-Zabramna, head of EPL legal department. “EPL will continue actively stimulating central authorities to adopt correct decisions and will involve all parties concerned to constructive dialogue for environmental protection.”
For further information please contact:
Olena Kravchenko, EPL director
Email: okravchenko@epl.org.ua, tel.: (032) 225 – 76 – 82
Alla Voytsikhovska, EPL environmentalist
Email: alla.voytsyhovska@gmail.com, tel.: (032) 225 – 76 – 82
Kateryna Norenko, EPL environmentalist
Email: kateryna.norenko@gmail.com, tel.: (032) 225 – 76 – 82
