Reanimation package of reforms > News > Events > Ukraine is not a garbage dump! Activists picket the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources
12 million tons of rubbish is dumped every year at Ukrainian landfills. This was argued by the activists at the campaign “Ukraine is Not a Landfill!” which took place on March 26 at the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources.
At the event, Olena Kravchenko, Director of the Environment-People-Law ICO, told about the accumulation of 54 million m³ of household waste in 2018. This is more than 9 million tons which are buried in 6,000 landfills with a total area of more than 9,000 hectares. It is only official data that can be understated at least 2-fold, she added. The first package of waste management draft laws that was buried in the bureaucracy of the Ministry could save the situation.
The Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources turned environmental control reform into a sham which was written for the benefit of the head of the Ministry of Ostap Semerak with the aim of creating a quasi-inspection under his direct leadership, said Kravchenko. Eco-inspectors use their powers to exert pressure on businesses to receive bribes. Now the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources is giving firearms to the inspectors, which can lead to business intimidation and even greater tyranny on the part inspectors.
All landfills in Ukraine have the same problems that can be solved in one step. To do this, it is necessary to finalize the necessary draft laws and to introduce effective environmental control. This was reported by Kateryna Norenko, an analyst at Environment-People-Law ICO.
The Parliament has been waiting for a draft law on waste for several years, and its absence slows down the development of waste disposal infrastructure, said Ostap Yednak, an MP of Ukraine.
“In 2019, we brought together 4 importers and 2 trading networks so that batteries collection and recycling were paid at the expense of sales revenue, the way it is done in Europe, but this is a mere1% of all batteries discarded in Ukraine. To receive large-scale results, we demand the adoption of a law that will make the model of extended producer responsibility mandatory for all companies in Ukraine,” Liubov Kolosovska, head of the movement “Batteries, Give Up” addressed the officials of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources.
During the event, the activists also put forward the following requirements to the Ministry:
