Waste removal rego-operators may be obliged to clean container sites

The Russian Environmental Operator (REO), together with the Ministry of Natural Resources and State Duma deputies, are working on amendments to the current regulation. The amendments, if adopted during the spring session, will oblige regional solid waste management operators to equip container sites and monitor their cleanliness. This was told to "Izvestia" on January 30 in the REO.

"Often on the sites you can see scattered waste, which no one cleans up. We fix it by the messages that are sent to us in the "REO Radar". Nowadays, local authorities are mainly responsible for the cleanliness of sites. At the same time, rego-operators are responsible for waste from the moment it is loaded into a garbage truck, for cleaning the loading sites and for piles at the site due to failure to meet the deadlines for removal of solid waste. The rules on how to act in this or that case are not clearly spelled out anywhere, and we in REO want to correct this situation," said Denis Butsaev, Director General of REO.

Thus, it is planned to fix a new obligation for rego-operators. Additional costs will be laid in the tariffs, which are regulated by the region. Against this background, regional governments will be able to allocate subsidies to regoperators to limit the growth of the tariff.

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In addition, in December, the REO made a proposal to oblige drivers of garbage trucks to photograph container sites after waste collection. The Ministry of Natural Resources told Izvestia that REO finalized the FGIS UTCO in terms of displaying photos of TCO collection from the places of accumulation on the instructions of the government.

Prior to that, on December 5, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that 242 objects of accumulated environmental damage had been eliminated in Russia within the framework of the national project "Ecology". This number included 157 large landfills. The territory of the objects was reclaimed, which, in turn, made the lives of more than 20 million people more comfortable and safer, the head of state added.