A mechanism for certification of responsible waste processors appeared in Russia

Russian Environmental Operator (REO) has launched voluntary certification for waste processing companies. This was reported by the press service of the organization.

As explained in the REO, the mechanism is designed to identify honest and competent waste disposers. It will help enterprises engaged in this business to confirm their competencies, and organizations with a need for garbage removal will be able to select conscientious contractors with proven capacities.

“Currently, there are organizations that do not meet the established requirements, but at the same time declare that they are engaged in recycling. The voluntary certification mechanism that we propose is primarily aimed at identifying bona fide recyclers.

Now waste generators, when choosing an organization that carries out recycling, do not have full-fledged tools for their assessment. We offer the market such a mechanism that will allow us to determine the most conscientious participants in the industry,” said Denis Butsaev, head of the REO.

The certification body in the REO system is the Autonomous Non-Commercial Organization “Russian Quality System” (Roskachestvo).

To obtain a certificate, companies need to leave an application on the Roskachestvo website and pass an audit. Recyclers will have to prove compliance with a number of criteria — to have documentation and technologies for handling the declared types of waste, to own equipment for the production of products from recycled materials, and so on.

About 70 million tons are produced annually, and this figure is increasing every year.

Currently, the problem of waste disposal in Russia is on the agenda, and its solution is one of the environmental challenges of the future. Until recently, almost all waste produced in Russia was landfilled, with only 5–7% of the waste exposed to it. The ban on the disposal of a large number of types of garbage concerned a rather small percentage of waste: their list until 2019 amounted to 67 items, then it was increased by another 42 items. All of them are waste, useful components.

Special landfills are arranged for waste disposal, but the scale of environmental pollution from them is huge, and it was necessary to find a radically different solution to the problem.

Since 2019, the national project “Ecology” has been operating, which provides for the development of the waste disposal industry to a record high so far — 36% of recyclable waste by 2024. To achieve this goal, a system of separate waste collection across the country is being built, waste processing plants with a total capacity of 37 million tons are being built.

Cover photo: Trygve Finkelsen / iStock