State of waste management and legislation in the Ukraine

1
State of waste management and legislation in the
Ukraine
2

• Normative legal base is a fundament of
  environmental activity. For today, the
  environmental legislation of Ukraine includes
  over 200 laws and by-laws. Almost all of them
  have been adopted or adjusted after adoption of
  the Constitution of Ukraine (1996). The Agreement
  on partnership and cooperation between European
  Union and Ukraine (1994) commits the parties to
  resolve a number of environmental problems, and
  harmonization of the laws and regulative by-laws
  of Ukraine with the European legislation. The
  most trusted to the European requirements is the
  Law of Ukraine "On Ecological Expertise" and the
  new edition of the Law of Ukraine "On the
  Protection of Atmospheric Air". In 2004 the
  Parliament of Ukraine adopted the Law on
  environmental network that is unique in Europe.
  At the same time, there are still legally
  unsettled the issues of distribution of the
  authorities and responsibilities in the domain of
  environmental protection between the bodies of
  executive power and the bodies of local
  self-governments. The topical issue is the issue
  of ensuring the acting law observance.

3

• Ukraine definitely strengthened its legislation
  using integration into international legal area.
  Ukraine ratified 27 key environmental conventions
  and, at present time, is the Party of 26
  environmental conventions. Practically all
  important international agreements in the domain
  of conservation and non-exhaustive use of
  biodiversity became the property of the
  Ukrainian national legislation. Besides, 70
  multilateral and bilateral agreements in the
  domain of environmental protection and nuclear
  safety were signed and came into force. During
  2004 the Parliament of Ukraine has adopted the
  laws "On Ratification of the Kyoto Protocol to
  the United Nations Framework Convention on
  Climate Change" and "On the Carpathian
  Convention". To maintain effective implementation
  of the international conventions in Ukraine there
  are legal (elaboration of the laws and by-laws
  aimed at the implementation of the conventions)
  and administrative steps as well. The
  administrative and scientific bodies of the
  conventions are emerging data materials are
  publishing and spreading an interaction between
  scientific and administrative bodies of the
  conventions, educational and civil organizations
  is establishing. In 2004 the normative base for
  fulfilment of financial engagements of the state
  under the international agreements finally has
  been created.

4

• The National Action Plan on environmental
  protection consists of the framework document
  "Principle Directions of State policy of Ukraine
  in environmental protection, use of natural
  resources and ensuring ecological safety" (1998)
  and the state purposeful programs that contain
  actions aimed at the priorities determination.
  According to a new paradigm, during 2003-2004
  have been prepared and proposed for consideration
  of the Government a draft of the Strategy on the
  sustainable development of Ukraine where relevant
  goals and tasks were emphasized.
• The modern environmental legislation, in the part
  of ecological safety balancing, is under dynamic
  development and accomplishment. The Law of
  Ukraine "On Principles of National Safety of
  Ukraine" (2003) makes environmental safety a
  priority in transition to the balanced
  development. Nowadays, the work on preparation of
  the bills of Ukraine "On National Conception for
  Cleaner Manufacture Implementation", "On Chemical
  Safety" and "On Domestic Wastes" is lasting.

5

• Ukraine has not yet developed a self-sufficient
  national infrastructure for waste management and
  disposal. The market for waste recycling
  equipment is in development phase. A positive
  trend in increasing the proportion of recovered
  waste started in 2000 and was confirmed in 2001.
  Some 51 types of waste are now recovered or
  recycled, which account for about 60 of waste
  generation (2001 data). The most significant of
  these is the use of coal waste and steel slag as
  construction materials.  
• A lot of environmental recycling work is being
  done by the Military Forces of Ukraine, which
  have started to collect used tires, oil,
  batteries, scrap metal and other types of waste
  and organize their delivery to centralized
  processing or disposal facilities. A centralized
  system is also now being set up to dispose of
  unusable ammunition and explosives.

6

• Every year the economy of Ukraine uses 1.3-1.5
  billion tons of raw and processed materials. Most
  of these materials are returned to the
  environment as industrial and consumer wastes.
  Since the Ukrainian economy is very dependent on
  the production of natural raw materials, mining
  waste (88) dominates the overall pattern of
  waste that is generated, while all other types of
  industrial waste account for only 10 of total
  waste, and municipal waste only about 2.
• Municipal waste management represents a serious
  problem in Ukraine. Every year, approximately 10
  million tones of waste is produced in Ukrainian
  municipalities. Most of it is disposed to 766
  landfill sites. 80 of these sites do not meet
  basic environmental standards and are polluting
  air, water and soil. Paper, scrap metal, and
  glass are used as recyclable wastes, but the
  percentage of recovered/recycled wastes is
  obviously not sufficient. Moreover, in Ukraine
  there is no system of separate waste collection,
  so sorting of wastes at the collection stations
  or landfills is necessary. Treatment or sorting
  is done at only a few sites.

7

• Three waste incineration plants are functional in
  Kiev, Kharkiv and Dnepropetrovsk, but their
  equipment does not meet environmental standards
  either, and the resulting ashes and slag are not
  disposed of properly.
•  
• Due to the absence of a self-sufficient national
  infrastructure for waste management and disposal,
  many regions of Ukraine are experiencing
  difficulties with processing and disposal of
  hazardous waste. Most companies have to store
  hazardous waste on their sites in dangerous
  amounts. Only few of companies' disposal
  facilities are properly engineered for the
  purpose. The number of specialized sites for
  centralized processing of hazardous waste is
  insufficient.

8

• A separate, but quite serious problem is that of
  unusable pesticides and other agricultural
  chemicals. In total, 13,500 tones of them has
  been accumulated, of which half is stored at 150
  centralized facilities, and the rest is kept at
  5000 agricultural farms and local suppliers. 60
  of this waste is stored in unsuitable places and
  conditions, clearly threatening the local
  environment and population. Almost nothing is
  being done to process or dispose of this type of
  waste.
• Key data on waste generation, accumulation,
  recycling and disposal are in most cases
  estimated rather than measured, and in quite a
  number of cases need to be further investigated,
  due to imperfection of the system for collection
  of national statistics and difficulties in
  getting reliable statistical data from private
  companies.
• Analysis of these figures reveals a tendency of
  total waste generation growth, but decrease of
  the amount of hazardous waste. Both the total
  amount and the percentage of recovered and
  recycled wastes have increased, which suggests
  more rational and efficient use of natural
  resources. Recycling this waste could be an
  important source of raw materials for industry
  and serve as a basis for future sustainable
  development.

9
Analysis of these figures reveals a tendency of
total waste generation growth, but decrease of
the amount of hazardous waste. Both the total
amount and the percentage of recovered and
recycled wastes have increased, which suggests
more rational and efficient use of natural
resources. Recycling this waste could be an
important source of raw materials for industry
and serve as a basis for future sustainable
development.
10
The structure of waste generation and utilization

• The enterprises of mining, chemical and
  metallurgical, machine building, fuel and energy,
  construction and agriculture complexes, etc. are
  the main sources of waste generation in Ukraine.
• Taking into consideration the fact that
  metallurgical and petrochemical complexes produce
  70 of GDP of Ukraine, it is possible to consider
  these complexes to be the main contributors in
  terms of generation of waste. The most important
  part of the waste materials originates from ore
  mining and processing. In particular ashes and
  ash slag wastes of thermo-electric power
  stations, local boiler houses, coal mining and
  coal providing wastes, polymetallic ore
  processing wastes, metallurgical enterprises
  slags and red slimes belong to the type of
  large-tonnage wastes.

11

• Due to the general economic tendency towards a
  decrease of production volumes,  less money is
  available for environment-protecting measures,
  which causes a reduced level of waste materials
  usage.
• The accumulation of ashes and ash slag wastes has
  been continuing,  its main sources being
  thermo-electric power stations.
• In 1998, 31.1 million tons of waste materials
  were generated in mines and processing factories
  in comparison with 31.9 million tons in 1997 and
  40.3 million tons in 1996. The volume of
  accumulated waste materials of coal mining and
  coal concentrating was 140 million tons in 1998,
  which is 2.3 million tons more than in 1997.

12

• Dnipropetrovsk Region is the source of
  polymetallic ore concentrating waste materials.
  In 1998, 5.5 million tons of these wastes were
  generated compared to 4.4 million tons in 1997.
  The volume of accumulated waste materials has
  been constantly increasing, and in 1998 it was
  119.8 million tons in comparison with 114.4
  million tons in 1997 and 110.2 million tons in
  1996.
• In 1998 metallurgical industry enterprises
  generated 22.9 million tons of blast furnace
  slags, steel furnace slags and ferroalloy slags,
  compared to 15 million tons in 1997. At the same
  time the level of usage was reduced from 54.5 in
  1997 to 36.4 in 1998, and the volume of
  accumulated waste materials increased by 8
  million tons and reached  more than 100 million
  tons.
• Considerable areas are used for disposal of red
  slimes, which are mainly generated in Mykolayiv
  Region. A low level of usage caused the volume of
  accumulated waste materials to increase to 17.3
  million tons in 1998 as compared to 16.4 million
  tons in 1997.

13

• Thus usage of the most important types of
  recyclable wastes was decreased in 1998 in
  comparison with 1997 ashes and ash slags from
  16.4 to 16, coal mining and coal providing
  wastes from 9.3 to 9, polymetallic ore
  providing from 4.7 to 2.4, steel furnace slags
  from 57.1 (total volume from 21 million tons) to
  15.1 (to 17.6 million tons). The accumulated
  volumes of certain waste materials decreased,
  except volumes of steel furnace slags
• Environmental problems due to waste materials
  accumulation are getting acute in Ukraine. The
  most dangerous wastes are heavy metals, oil
  products and unusable chemical herbicides. In
  1998 such danger levels of toxic wastes where
  graded 19,000 tons come under the first danger
  level, 183,000 tons under the second danger
  level, 2,252,000 tons under the third danger
  level, and 81,579,000 under the fourth danger
  level. The total amount was 84,033,000 tons. The
  utilization level was 33.3, 38.5, 63.1, 21.9
  and 23.1, respectively.

14

• Toxic wastes of the fourth danger level were
  mainly generated in Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk
  regions in 1998 as in previous years, and
  amounted to 84.7 of the total amount of these
  waste materials in Ukraine.
• In general, 1998 saw a continuation of the
  accumulation of waste materials due to a low
  level of waste utilization in the industrial as
  well as in the housekeeping sector, though it
  decreased in comparison with the previous years.
  As of 1 January 1999 the total amount of
  accumulated toxic wastes in Ukraine was 4.2
  billion tons, which is approximately 52 million
  tons more than as of 1 January 1998

15
Dynamics of toxic waste accumulation in Ukraine
(thousand tn) and allocation of toxic waste
accumulation in regions ( of total amount)
16
Dynamics of toxic wastes accumulation in Ukraine
(thousand tons)
17

• Toxic wastes of the first danger level were
  mostly generated in Dnipropetrovsk and Chernigiv
  and constituted 82.8 of the total volume of such
  wastes accumulated in Ukraine.
• Most toxic wastes of the second danger level were
  generated in Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk regions
  and in the Crimea, which amounted to 63.2 of the
  total amount of such wastes accumulated in
  Ukraine.
• Toxic wastes of the third danger level were
  mainly generated in Mykolaiv, Dnipropetrovsk and
  Zaporizhzhia regions and constituted 83.7 of the
  total amount of such wastes accumulated in
  Ukraine.
• The largest part of toxic wastes of the fourth
  danger level was generated in Donetsk and
  Dnipropetrovsk regions and made up 86.2 of the
  total accumulated volumes of these waste
  materials in Ukraine.

18
Domestic wastes

• In towns and villages, 40 million m3 of waste
  (about 0.8 m3 for each citizen) are generated.
  This garbage is disposed of in 700 urban
  landfills, about 80 of which are used without a
  programme in place to prevent ground water and
  air pollution. In four waste disposal plants the
  equipment does not meet modern ecological
  requirements. The largest  landfills are situated
  in  Dnipropetrovsk (140 hectares), Donetsk (330
  hectares), Odesa (195 hectares) and Zaporizhzhia
  (153 hectares).
• The share of the volume of accumulated domestic
  wastes is less than 3 of the total amount of
  wastes. In the worlds leading countries this
  balance is 19 in Japan and 26 in Germany. The
  reason is improper usage of raw materials in the
  country.
• Paper, scrap metal, etc. are used as recyclable
  wastes. It provides an opportunity for income for
  some towns and villages but it obviously cannot
  reduce the wastes which are supposed to be burnt
  or taken to dump sites. Above-mentioned amounts
  are based on expert estimates.

19
Volumes of Generation, Usage and Accumulation of
wastes (thousand tons)
20
Dynamics of toxic wastes generation by Ukrainian
enterprises (thousand tons)
21
Toxic wastes generation, usage and extermination
in Ukraine according to danger levels
22
Allocation of the toxic wastes generation in
regions according to danger level , of all
23
Waste materials storage and disposal

• Conditions for waste materials storage and
  disposal frequently
• do not meet current health requirements, and
  cause pollution
• of surface and ground water, soils and air.
• Most Ukrainian regions do not have any kind of
  areas for centralized waste materials storage and
  disposal. Conditions connected with dangerous
  waste materials allocation and recycling are not
  satisfactory. Dangerous wastes of the third and
  the fourth danger levels were mainly directed to
  surface storage, and approximately 5 (4.1
  million tons) of the same waste materials
  appeared at areas of uncontrolled storage.
• According to the State Statistical Committee data
  5.3 thousand tons of the first and the second
  danger levels wastes were transported to areas of
  uncontrolled storage and 15.4 thousand tons of
  the same wastes were transported to controlled
  storage which did not meet current standards.
• Ukrainian storage sites for pesticides that are
  obsolete and not allowed to be used in
  agricultural practice (OP) are considered as
  potential sources of dangerous impact.  13.5
  thousand tons of such chemicals where accumulated
  in areas which are not appropriate for storage of
  such dangerous chemicals. Unsatisfactory
  conditions, long-term storage of OP, and low
  quality of containers and packing materials pose
  a danger to the population and the environment,
  and the consequences of this situation are
  unpredictable.  

24

• There are 109 centralized storage depots for
  obsolete pesticides and agrochemical storage and
  approximately 5,000 depots for herbicides at
  agricultural enterprises.
• There are about 2 760 waste sites, mostly sludge
  accumulating ponds, ash-storage sites, and
  landfills of municipal solid waste and mixed
  waste. Household waste is landfilled at 656 major
  sites, covering a total area of 2 600 ha. There
  are 109 sites for the centralized storage of
  obsolete pesticides and toxic agricultural
  chemicals and about 4 000 storage sites for such
  wastes at agricultural enterprises.
• The industrial and domestic waste disposal sites
  frequently fail to meet environmental safety
  requirements. Practically all sites were put into
  operation 10 to 30 years ago. The majority of
  them are filled to 90 per cent. Some waste
  accumulation sites that were constructed without
  proper protection measures have become an
  environmental threat on a regional scale.
• Specialized (dedicated) waste storage sites for
  waste disposal operate only in some regions of
  Ukraine. The majority of sites (95 per cent) take
  in both municipal solid waste and industrial
  wastes. There is barely any separation or
  pre-selection of wastes. Practically none of the
  landfills has special water protection facilities
  like protective dams and walls, channels or
  drainage piping. One of the biggest landfills in
  Ukraine is located near Kyiv, serving about 3
  million inhabitants of the capital and some other
  neighbouring territories of Kyiv oblast. This
  landfill is managed by the Kyiv State enterprise
  of sanitary engineering. It is protected only by
  a 2 mm HDPE plastic film at the bottom there is
  no recovery of biogas, and there are considerable
  leachate drainage and purification problems, as
  each day about 80 cubic metres of leachate
  percolates through the HDPE cover. There is no
  daily covering of the waste surface, and there is
  no control of anaerobic effects.

25

• Recycling
• It is estimated that more than half the
  industrial waste generated annually is
  recyclable. At present, only 10-12 is recycled.
  The recycled amounts of industrial and consumer
  wastes are decreasing. It is estimated that the
  recycling of major types of waste dropped in and
  waste recycling dropped 20 a year on average,
  exceeding the reduction in the total volume of
  industrial production.
• Economic instruments
• According to existing regulations, the producers
  of waste have to pay fees, which depend on the
  type of waste, and whether they are within or
  above the granted limit. The fees must be paid
  until final treatment, removal (safe
  decommissioning) or reuse has taken place.

26

• The municipalities are considered as enterprises,
  but for many years they did not have to pay.
  Since 1996, they have been expected to pay.
• For an amount above the granted limit, the fee is
  multiplied by 5. It is, moreover, multiplied by 3
  for disposal sites within 3 km from human
  settlements, and multiplied again by 10 if the
  disposal site is not properly installed. The
  limits are set each year by the regional
  department of environmental safety on the basis
  of proposals by the enterprise and in view of
  standard documents for certain production
  processes. The system is based on three
  regulations of the norms for payment, the norms
  for coefficients and the norms for the generation
  of waste.
• The setting of limits appears to be arbitrary to
  some extent. The normative basis is not unified
  (i.e. it is scattered over several documents, and
  the underlying goals and principles are not
  elaborated), and enforcement is not very
  transparent. Only 10 or less of fees and
  charges are actually estimated to be paid up.
  Theoretically, the fees are split among the local
  government environmental funds (20 ), the
  environmental funds at the region level (50 )
  and the State environmental fund established in
  the national budget (30 ). The distribution
  mechanism probably causes additional losses.
  Changes are expected to take place soon, but
  decisions still need to be taken by the Cabinet
  of Ministers.

27
Legislative and normative framework

• The year of 1998 has become a turning point for
  the further development and improvement of
  ecological legislation. The Supreme Council of
  Ukraine approved the  legislative act Main
  aspects of the national policy on environmental
  protection, utilization of natural resources, and
  guarantee of environmental safety (5 March
  1998). This is the most important programmatic
  document in which the current ecological
  situation and environmental state in Ukraine are
  characterized, and it deals with the basic
  priorities of environmental protection, rational
  use of natural resources and ensuring of
  ecological safety.
• The approval of the Law of Ukraine On waste on
  5 March, 1998 laid the foundation for the
  initiation of a new legislative base in the field
  of waste handling. In its general part the law is
  based on European and global principles of
  solving the waste problem, such as priority of
  human health protection and environmental
  protection, notification and minimization of
  waste generation, development and introduction of
  ecologically pure technologies and development of
  technologies based on utilization of waste. The
  terminology used in the Law of Ukraine On waste
  corresponds to the terminology used in
  international documents on waste handling.
• The main issues addressed include
• Determining the responsibilities of the waste
  generators
• Establishing the authority of State organs and
  the functions of the managing bodies
• Determining the specially authorized waste
  management bodies and their functions.
• The law underlines the need to identify the
  owner of the waste and imposes responsibility for
  proper control on the owner (enterprise).

28

• Most of the laws provisions call for the
  development and introduction of relevant
  regulatory, technical or financial instruments.
  Apart from the involvement of budgetary and other
  financial resources, application of the law
  demands the introduction of more than 20
  supplemental acts. Some of these documents have
  already been prepared and put into force, namely
  
• Resolution of  the Cabinet of Ministers of
  Ukraine of 2 July 1998 No. 999 Procedure for
  realization of ecological control of export
  consignment of ferrous and nonferrous scrap metal
  by subdivisions of the State Ecological
  Inspection of the Ministry for Environmental
  Protection and Nuclear Safety of Ukraine
• Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of
  Ukraine  of 3 August 1998 No. 1216 Adoption of
  the procedure for keeping a register of sites of
  waste disposal
• Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine
  of 3 August 1998 No. 1217 Adoption of the
  procedure for revealing of and accounting for
  unowned waste
• Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine
  of 3 August 1998 No. 1218 Adoption of the
  procedure for the development, adoption and
  revision of limits for generation and disposal of
  waste
• Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine
  of 31 August 1998 No. 1360 Adoption of the
  procedure for keeping a register of the
  installations where wastes are generated,
  processed and utilized.

29

• In addition, there are plans to develop and adopt
  a series of other Decrees on hazardous waste,
  packaging materials and solid domestic waste. A
  plan is under preparation to identify the
  complete set of laws required for waste
  management and their promulgation dates. Ukraine
  has ratified the Basel Convention On the
  Trans-boundary Control over Hazardous Waste
  Transport and Disposal. In 2001 the Government
  of Ukraine determined the basic principles of
  state system for waste management as for the
  secondary raw materials.
• According to the National energy program of
  Ukraine till 2010 (1996), the most prospecting
  decision on the nuclear fuel waste problem is
  acknowledged as development of dry-type storage
  system for the term of exploitation over 50
  years. In 2001 the dry storage at the industrial
  area of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant
  started its experimentally industrial
  exploitation. In 2003 the "Integrated program on
  behavior with radioactive waste on the stage of
  stopping the exploitation of the Chernobyl
  nuclear power plant" was introduced and included
  the optimized scheme of behavior with radioactive
  waste.

30
Other legal instruments relevant to waste
management include

• Law on Environmental Protection
• Law on ensuring sanitary and epidemiological
  public welfare
• Mineral Resources Code
• Law on Pesticides and Agricultural Chemicals
• Law on Radioactive Waste
• List of toxic substances including
  toxic industrial wastes, biotechnological
  products and other biological agents, the
  production, storage, use, burial and destruction
  of which require a permit
• Instruction on processing applications
  for permits for the production, storage,
  transport, use, burial or destruction of toxic
  materials including toxic industrial wastes,
  biotechnological products and other biological
  agents.

31
Draft State Programme for Toxic Waste Management

• This programme was recently designed and has been
  reviewed by the Ukrainian Government as well as
  the Supreme Council. Covering the period
  1998-2005, its main goal is to increase the level
  of environmental safety in Ukraine by decreasing
  the generation of toxic wastes and limiting their
  harmful influence on the environment and human
  health. One of the primary measures is an
  inventory of toxic wastes allocation. Creation of
  small-scale utilization and a network of toxic
  waste dumping enterprises at the regional level
  will be another important step.
• The government has also created the National
  Centre of Hazardous Wastes Management to provide
  organization and implementation of scientific,
  technical and technological events in the waste
  management sphere. The success of the Programme
  depends on two factors an existence of
  appropriate funds for realization of all planned
  events and awareness-raising of the general
  public in the field of ecology.

32
State programme on the use of wastes of
production and consumption

• This Programme (Cabinet of Ministers Decree No.
  688 of 28 June 1997) is aimed at the design and
  support of modern technologies, storehouses and
  equipment, and also on the creation of industrial
  capacities for waste utilization in accordance
  with present economic, environmental protection
  and social aspects. The Programme will also
  provide an opportunity for public and private
  enterprises to resolve recycling problems under
  the conditions of a market economy.
• Evidently, some of these instruments have begun
  to be applied only recently.

33
Institutional framework

• The new Law on Wastes is the first attempt at
  organizing waste management in a comprehensive
  manner. Prior to its existence, there were no
  structured institutional responsibilities. The
  practices of waste management at the various
  levels of government were largely unknown.
• The institutional framework and the
  responsibilities of the various players are
  primarily described in chapter IV of the Law on
  Wastes ("Competence of bodies of executive power
  and bodies of local self-government in waste
  management"). Surprisingly, the Cabinet of
  Ministers has wide-ranging responsibilities, not
  only as coordinator, but also in technical
  matters, such as approving procedures for
  granting permits and establishing conditions for
  waste collection approving lists of hazardous
  wastes defining the procedures for recording the
  generation, use and disposal of wastes
  organizing the training of specialists in waste
  management.
• At the central government level, the Ministry of
  Environmental Protection and Nuclear Safety and
  the State Sanitary-Epidemiological Service
  continue to play an executive role. On behalf of
  the State, the Ministry verifies compliance with
  environmental safety requirements. For instance,
  it proposes waste charges and national waste
  management regulations to the Cabinet of
  Ministers. It issues permits for waste management
  operations and transboundary waste movements. It
  approves draft limits on waste generation, and
  the siting of waste management facilities. It
  also supervises the compilation and maintenance
  of registers of waste-generating facilities and
  waste disposal sites.

34

• The State Sanitary-Epidemiological Service
  verifies compliance with State sanitary
  regulations, rules and hygiene standards for
  waste-related activities. This includes
  specifying priority measures for protecting human
  health.
• The local State authorities develop and introduce
  regional and local waste management programs, as
  parts of national programs. They coordinate and
  promote the development of business activities in
  waste management, and control the activities of
  waste management facilities. They also create and
  maintain records, and set up registers for the
  generation, treatment, use and disposal of
  wastes.
• Local bodies of self-government are responsible
  for collecting and disposing of domestic wastes
  resolving issues dealing with the siting of waste
  management facilities establishing waste
  disposal charges in accordance with legislation
  supervising the efficient use and safe waste
  management eliminating unauthorized and
  uncontrolled waste dumps.
• The Law on Wastes broadly follows the
  distribution of responsibilities that has existed
  until now. However, subsidiary legal acts, good
  administrative procedures and sufficient
  budgetary means will be needed to ensure that the
  various authorities can live up to their
  responsibilities.

35
Strategies and policies

• The "Principal Directions of State policy of
  Ukraine in environmental protection, use of
  natural resources and ensuring ecological safety"
  (approved on 5 March 1998) is the current
  environmental policy document. It spells out
  policy aims and tasks. Its goals are
  resource-related, environment-related, or
  methodological and organizational.
  Resource-related goals include the valuation of
  wastes, the assessment of the technical
  processing capability and of the ability to
  replace primary by secondary raw materials, the
  economic justification of waste use, and an
  actual scheme for the use of the resources. Its
  environmental management goals cover the
  minimization of waste through the introduction of
  cleaner technologies, the reduction of the
  toxicity of wastes, and the regeneration and
  recultivation of polluted territories. Finally,
  its methodological and organizational goals
  include the development of a program including
  administrative, legal, organizational, and
  environmental measures, as well as the necessary
  associated scientific, information and analytical
  services.

36
The following main measures are defined on the
basis of these tasks

• increase the volume of metallurgical slag
  processing, which should result in the processing
  of the entire volume of produced slag within 5-6
  years
• use metal-containing waste from metallurgy
  enterprises, in the cement industry expand the
  use of ash and ash slag from thermal power plants
• double the production of ceramic tiles from
  coal-processing wastes, and add them to the
  furnace charge at the operating brick factories,
  over a period of 5-6 years
• expand the production of gypsum and building
  materials of phosphogypsum, organize and prepare
  the use of phosphogypsum for the improvement of
  saline soils
• increase the use of limestone waste for the
  production of limestone powder and cement, and
  ensure the use of limestone and sulphur wastes
  for lime treatment of acid soils in agriculture
• fully process wood wastes into chips for
  technological purposes, and turn cuttings and
  sawdust into briquettes for use as fuel or
  hydrolytic yeast production.

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• The list of priorities and corresponding tasks is
  ambitious and optimistic. The document does not
  set any deadlines, allocate responsibilities or
  identify the means needed to achieve such an
  ambitious program. There is no reference to the
  economic and administrative circumstances
  prevailing in Ukraine, and no attempt to explain
  how the policy objectives fit into these
  circumstances. The main measures, containing
  sometimes quantitative goals and deadlines,
  appear unrealistic. Moreover, the measures are
  formulated purely in terms of technology, and not
  in terms of prospective markets, investment needs
  or necessary institutional reforms.
• The aim with regard to the management of
  municipal solid wastes is to collect, transport,
  and treat waste with industrial techniques, and
  to recycle its valuable components. The principal
  tasks necessary to achieve this objective
  envisage
• Implementation of new methods of household waste
  collection, permitting selective recovery of
  valuable components.
• Drawing-up of industrial treatment programs for
  household waste.

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Conclusions and recommendations

• Recommendation 1
• The current establishment of a modern legal basis
  for waste management should aim at internal
  consistency and completeness with regard to
  management tasks and instruments, but avoid
  redundancies.
• The renovation of the waste management system
  cannot succeed, unless it is accepted, supported
  and, eventually, financed by the public in
  general, as well as by waste generators.
  Improvements in these two regards appear to be
  necessary and possible. They will necessarily
  have to be based on the association of all
  partners in waste management to the development
  of the definition of goals for waste management,
  treatment and disposal practices, and on the
  establishment of sound cooperation. In this
  framework, waste generators and NGOs should be
  consulted to the maximum extent about the current
  legislative efforts. It would also be helpful to
  launch education campaigns at local, regional and
  national level to raise awareness about recycling
  and reuse of waste, as well as about the
  possibilities for minimizing the generation of
  problematic waste in particular.

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• Recommendation 2
• Industrial generators of waste and NGOs should be
  associated, on a consultative basis or through
  pilot projects, with the ongoing development of
  the legal framework for waste management, as well
  as with all future activities. Campaigns should
  be organized to raise public awareness about
  waste minimization and waste recycling.
• Satisfactory waste management depends also on the
  quality of the institutional arrangements made.
  At present, responsibilities and mandates at
  different levels of administration require
  clarification with respect to enforcement, in
  particular for the management of hazardous waste.
  Three considerations appear to be of special
  importance for the future shape of the
  institutional framework for waste management. The
  first is that the local and regional
  administrations in fact receive the mandate for
  taking those decisions that are best taken at
  their level. This leads to the second
  consideration, namely that these administrations
  have the substantive competence to meet their
  responsibility. This might require the training
  of staff. The third consideration relates to
  budgetary provisions. These provisions need to be
  proportional to the responsibilities of the
  different levels of administration. Public
  revenues from the generation, collection,
  transport, treatment and disposal of wastes need
  to be shared fairly between the budgets of the
  administrations involved in their management, on
  the basis of the costs incurred. It is even more
  important to establish and ensure an efficient,
  transparent and credible system of enforcement.

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• Recommendation 3
• The clear definition of administrative
  responsibilities and efficient coordination
  between different institutions involved in waste
  management should be seen as a high priority. In
  the interest of law enforcement, duplication of
  mandates has to be avoided. Each institution
  involved should obtain satisfactory budgetary
  authority for carrying out its mandate. Internal
  control mechanisms and external audits are needed
  to ensure an efficient, transparent and credible
  system of enforcement.
• Funds are particularly crucial for ensuring the
  creation of much needed waste separation,
  storage, treatment and disposal facilities. Given
  the country's current economic crisis,
  imaginative solutions will have to be found, and
  the new landfill in Dnepropetrovsk should be
  looked at with a view to assessing whether some
  or all of the solutions found there can be
  generally applied. A second possible approach
  consists in increasing prices for waste
  management services immediately to the highest
  socially acceptable levels, and to increase them
  in the future as the general economic situation
  improves. In both regards, pilot projects might
  help to gain experience. A third possible
  approach consists in using systematically
  available options for foreign assistance.
• The following small/medium pilot projects might
  be eligible for international funding
• biogas exploitation from the Kyiv landfill to
  produce both electricity for the grid and thermal
  energy, to be used locally
• a biogas treatment plant to use organic and
  agricultural waste and sludge from waste-water
  treatment plants
• adding equipment for the recovery of energy to
  waste incineration plants.
• Further funding mechanisms could perhaps be found
  from international legal instruments (like the
  provisions of the Kyoto Protocol for Joint
  Implementation or the Clean Development
  Mechanism), as well as from a more targeted use
  of the environmental funds existing in the
  country.

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• Recommendation 4
• A comprehensive analysis should be undertaken of
  all realistic funding possibilities for the
  purposes of creating the waste management
  facilities required in the country. A distinction
  between short- and long-term possibilities seems
  appropriate. The results of the analysis should
  be applied.
• The priorities with regard to the renovation and
  building of technical waste management facilities
  seem to be in the areas of separation or
  pre-treatment of waste (improving the potential
  for recycling and reuse), recovery of (electric)
  energy from incineration, increase in the
  combustion temperature in incinerators and
  improvement of cleaning processes of their
  exhaust gases, as well as the protection of
  groundwater from disposal site leaching and the
  construction of new disposal sites. Furthermore,
  provisions should also be made for research,
  development and demonstration of domestically
  developed waste recovery and treatment processes.
• Recommendation 5
• The establishment of a plan of priority actions
  to improve waste recovery and treatment
  operations from an environmental point of view
  should be considered urgent.
• A (known) problem of great potential risk is the
  continuing storage of obsolete pesticides and
  other agro-chemicals. The ongoing efforts to
  determine their chemical characteristics are a
  precondition for their acceptable storage
  preceding their environmentally sound
  destruction. All efforts should be made to find
  the funds necessary to solve this specific
  problem, be they from national or international
  sources.

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• Recommendation 6
• The obsolete pesticides should be analysed for
  their chemical characteristics and the associated
  human health and environmental risks, stored in
  an acceptable manner to reduce these risks and
  finally destroyed as soon as possible.
• The share of recycled materials in total
  consumption of raw materials in Ukraine is
  steadily rising. The total amounts and the
  percentage of recovered and recycled wastes are
  increasing, and the need for waste recycling
  equipment is growing. Introduction of new
  technologies in waste recycling is very
  important. Although, the development of the
  market is hampered by the lack of funding for
  waste management projects.
•  
• The best sales prospects for equipment include
• -         waste separation/sorting equipment,
• -         toxic waste treatment
  materials/equipment,
• -         waste fuel recycling equipment,
• -         on-site gasifiers for biomass,
• -         material reduction equipment,
• -         test/analyzing labware for toxic
  wastes.

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• The highest demand is for the following
  technologies
• -         construction debris recycling,
• -         recycling of tires,
• -         waste fuel recycling,
• -         medical waste recycling.
• Effective waste management in Ukraine requires
  certain conditions. An internally harmonized and
  balanced legislative base for all activities at
  all levels of management, taking proper measures
  according to the Programme to reach intended
  goals, and a system of institutions with strictly
  separated competition are needed.
• Waste producer, owner and public awareness
  concerning waste management instruments should be
  increased. And finally there is a need for
  well-functioning equipment for waste utilization,
  processing and dumping. This last factor depends
  on valuable funds to provide necessary research
  and elaboration and also for the construction of
  a considerable number of new installations and
  for the modernization of existing ones.
• It will take some time before these objectives
  are achieved, but the Law of Ukraine On waste
  is definitely a considerable step in the right
  direction.