The situation should have been improved by the waste management reform envisaged by the relevant Law on Waste Management, which came into force a year after its adoption on July 9, 2023. The document stipulates that companies in the industry must obtain a new type of license for hazardous waste management within 6 months after the Law comes into force, i.e. by January 9, 2024. At the same time, the Law on Licensing, in case of the introduction of new licensing conditions, provides enterprises with time to bring their activities in line with the requirements of the licensing conditions, which cannot be less than 2 months from the date of their publication.<\/span><\/p>\n The documents required to launch the procedure for obtaining new hazardous waste management licenses were approved and entered into force in mid-December 2023. These are:<\/span><\/p>\n Thus,\u00a0<\/span>hazardous waste management companies actually had 16 business days to obtain a new license, instead of the 2 months guaranteed by law<\/span><\/strong>. Starting from January 9, 2024, any activity in the field of hazardous waste management in Ukraine is illegal.<\/span><\/p>\n Since May 2023, the European Business Association has been trying to engage in a dialogue and warned the Government about the impending problem. The Ministry of Environment responded to our last letter of warning that\u00a0<\/span>“when submitting the draft resolution to the Government, the requirements of the articles of the Law of Ukraine ‘On Licensing of Economic Activities’ were taken into account”<\/span><\/em>\u00a0and that the agency<\/span>\u00a0“does not see any legislative inconsistencies.”<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n As a result, the EBA experts were forced to appeal to the Office of the President, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, and the State Regulatory Service to help resolve the situation. As a result, we have already received a response from the State Regulatory Service to appeal to the Prime Minister of Ukraine on the need to amend the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine “Some Issues of Ensuring the Conduct of Economic Activity under Martial Law” No. 314 of March 18, 2022, in terms of granting business entities the right to obtain licenses on a declarative basis.<\/span><\/p>\n\t The business community thanks the State Regulatory Service for its prompt response to the situation in the hazardous waste management market and calls on the Government to take urgent measures to enable the resumption of operations of the industry.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" According to the Arena-2 project, in 2022, Ukraine generated about 498 thousand tons of hazardous waste. It is approximately 12.2 kg per Ukrainian. This is 10% less than in 2021 and 70% less than in 2010, which has already demonstrated a positive impact on the environment, as less hazardous waste is disposed of in special […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33544,"featured_media":526366,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false},"categories":[4,5,22],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n
![](\"https:\/\/eba.com.ua\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Olga_Boiko.jpg\")
\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOlga Boiko<\/span>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe EBA Coordinator of the Industrial Ecology and Sustainable Development Committee<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tAccording to the latest information, no company in Ukraine has been licensed to carry out operations in the field of hazardous waste management for a week now. And this has its consequences. First, any enterprises and institutions that generate hazardous waste cannot transfer it to specialized contractors for further proper management. Secondly, public initiatives for the population on the safe management of hazardous waste from households, which are mainly funded by international donors, have stopped working. Thirdly, the provision of hazardous waste removal and disposal services to local communities that have signed contracts with companies whose licenses have now expired is also at risk of disruption. This situation is a dangerous precedent that suggests that any investment activity in Ukraine may be terminated because of the inaction of the authorized body. Is this the message we want to send to international partners and investors in the waste management sector, the financing of which is included, for example, in the Ukraine Facility plan? Moreover, this approach completely contradicts Ukraine\u2032s European integration commitments. After all, we do not want the lack of transparent conditions for obtaining licenses in the field of hazardous waste management to be the only reason why Ukraine will not be accepted into the EU.<\/strong><\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n