Recently, experts from the European Commission project in Ukraine, APENA 2, conducted a webinar on “Expected changes in packaging waste management.” The event took place on the platform of the European Business Association. Volodymyr Slabyi, Head of the UKRPEC, joined the discussion.

However, according to Volodymyr Slabyi, instead of a substantive discussion involving representatives of the real economic sector, which would have been appropriate given the importance of the topic, the event was more of a presentation of the provisions of the draft Law “On Packaging and Packaging Waste,” which is expected to be adopted by the Verkhovna Rada soon. In the opinion of the Chairman of the Board of UKRPEC, some of the theses presented during the event indicate a misunderstanding by part of the expert community of the very essence of the European approach to packaging waste management.

“One of the key issues is market fragmentation,” explains Volodymyr Slabyi. “The government draft law No. 10066 ‘On Packaging and Packaging Waste,’ currently in parliament, stipulates that to establish an organization for collective extended producer responsibility (EPR), the market share of the packaging mass introduced by members of such an organization must be at least 18 percent of the total packaging mass in the country. However, some experts are advocating for a 5 percent market share. In domestic conditions, this would mean the creation of about 20 EPR organizations! No EU country has that many. Most have 1-2 EPR organizations. The exceptions are Bulgaria and Romania, where the number of EPR organizations reached 15. These countries have proven to be the least effective! The European Environment Agency conducted a special study to determine which EU member states could meet the recycling targets set by the Directive on Packaging and Packaging Waste by 2025. The results show that countries with a high fragmentation of the packaging waste management market have no chance of meeting the Directive’s requirements.”

According to the Head of the UKRPEC, the coexistence of a significant number of EPR organizations in practice means the implementation of a so-called certification system. Poland serves as a negative example of such an experience. After the adoption of the Law on Packaging and Packaging Waste, more than 30 EPR organizations were created, which began buying up already collected packaging waste on the market. Instead of developing the collection and sorting infrastructure, Poland ended up with a system of purchasing certificates for processed packaging waste.

“The organization of the process of separate collection and recycling of waste requires significant investments and efforts: installing containers, organizing sorting station operations, conducting communication campaigns for the public, and many other steps. A small producer simply cannot meet these conditions. The way available to them to achieve target indicators is through commercial packaging, which can be obtained from retailers and companies that procure secondary raw materials by purchasing packaging waste from the population. However, such EPR organizations practically do not develop collection infrastructure, leaving local governments to deal with this problem alone. In practice, the reform does not work, and the population does not have the opportunity for separate collection of packaging waste,” warns Volodymyr Slabyi.

Another important topic is the minimum recycling targets. Today, there are proposals to require domestic producers to ensure the recycling of 40% of packaging within a year. According to the Head of the UKRPEC, this is an absolutely unrealistic figure.

“We at UKRPEC have calculated that implementing such plans would require the installation of over 120,000 containers for separate collection within a year (with the current resources being around 10,000)! Meanwhile, the EU Directive aimed to achieve the target of 40% only within 10 years. It is unlikely that domestic producers, especially under the conditions of martial law, are capable of achieving this goal faster than their counterparts in EU member states. We are returning to the question of the strategic goal of the reform. Is it about the opportunity to profit from secondary raw materials and replenish the budget through fines, or do we aspire to a gradual but systemic transition to the principles of circular economy and, as a result, minimization of environmental pollution,” emphasizes Volodymyr Slabyy.

UKRPEC states that at the current stage, packaging producers are not involved in the process of working on the future Law “On Packaging and Packaging Waste”.

“At the moment, a limited group of individuals is working on the document in a closed regime,” says Volodymyr Slabyy, Chairman of the Board of UKRPEC. “Neither the participants nor the progress of the work are known to us precisely. This causes some concern. Our organization and all member companies of the Coalition are ready for substantive discussion and cooperation aimed at developing effective and fair legislation on packaging waste management.”