World meat industry news

President Vladimir Putin agreed on proposals to change the extended liability mechanism for producers and importers of goods and packaging (ERP), follows from his resolution in a letter sent by Deputy Prime Minister Victoria Abramchenko (a copy of the letter of July 29 with a resolution of August 11 is at RBC, his authenticated by a government source).

RBC sent a request to the presidential press service. The press service of the government forwarded questions to Abramchenko's office. Representative of Victoria Abramchenko declined to comment on the letter, noting that the government continues to work on the implementation of the president's order to introduce new principles of extended producer responsibility.

In her letter, Victoria Abramchenko asks to support the transfer of responsibility for the disposal of packaging to its manufacturers and exclude the possibility of specially created associations fulfilling waste disposal standards. It is also proposed to establish responsibility for the disposal of the entire volume of produced packaging from January 1, 2025. Currently, packaging recycling rates are 10-45%. The fact that the new recycling rules will come into force in 2025, Victoria Abramchenko spoke in an interview with RBC in June.

The extended producer responsibility mechanism has been operating in Russia since 2015, and its reform has been discussed since 2019. Now the responsibility for the disposal of packaging lies with the producers of the final goods. In May 2022, it became known that Victoria Abramchenko's office developed a bill to transfer this responsibility to those who produce containers. This was opposed by packaging manufacturers: thus, according to the Association of Manufacturers of Glass Packaging, innovations will increase the cost of production of packaging by 20-30%, depending on its type.

Victoria Abramchenko's letter states that Denis Butsaev, Director General of the REO, proposed changing the approaches to the current mechanism of producer responsibility in relation to disposal. Butsaev confirmed to RBC that the president supported the ROP reform. According to the interlocutor of RBC, the reform will make it possible to get away from "inefficient administration of millions of small enterprises using packaging" to the administration of about 2.5 thousand manufacturers of this packaging.

“This measure will make it easier and more convenient for the state to raise funds from a relatively small number of packaging manufacturers. But there is no positive environmental effect in this decision,” believes a representative of the RusPEC association, which includes manufacturers of packaging and consumer goods. The association adds that such practice "is not present in almost any country in the world." In addition, RusPEC believes that it is now inexpedient to establish a recycling standard for 2025 due to the unstable economic situation. “No one in the world has yet managed to achieve 100% recycling of packaging. This is a goal that can be paid for. This is a collection that is convenient to collect. The question of who and how will ensure the collection and disposal of the packaging itself remains, ”the representative of the association notes. Denis Butsaev believes

Also, according to Denis Butsaev, “the final point has been put” on the issue of the participation of specially created associations in the implementation of the ROP. Butsaev believes that this option for fulfilling the disposal obligation “has long shown its inefficiency”, and refusing it will allow the ROP to be “whitewashed” and “get rid of the practice of fake certificates and supposedly disposal, which occurs only according to documents, but in reality the waste is thrown into a landfill ".

On the contrary, Anton Guskov, a representative of the Association of SCO "Electronics - Recycling", is sure that the creation of associations by manufacturing companies and importers to work on the implementation of the RPR is "the best way to work in this area", proven by world experience. “Utilization is a non-core activity for manufacturers, and even more so for importers, and combining their efforts on the basis of associations helps to achieve the standards set by the state most efficiently and at lower costs,” explains Anton Guskov. The associations have been working on the market for several years, submitting reports, and there were no complaints or questions from government agencies against them, the representative of RusPEC agrees.