Experts: the problem of hazardous waste management must be solved at the state level

In Russia, a unified system of dealing with industrial waste of the first and second hazard class can be created. The corresponding bill, which was adopted on July 17 on July 23, was approved by the Federation Council, on July 26 was signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The law makes amendments to the Federal Law “On Waste of Production and Consumption” and the Federal Law “On the State Corporation for Atomic Energy“ Rosatom ”and is aimed at improving the legal regulation of hazard classes of the I-II classes of hazard.

Waste of the first and second hazard class is waste that is either irreparable to harm the environment, or harm, which is eliminated only after 30 years.

“The intensive creation of new chemicals and materials that have no analogues in nature and effective mechanisms for their destruction leads to ecosystem degradation,” explains Elena Yesina, a chemist -technologist, candidate of economic sciences, an expert on the Presidential Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights.

“Such stable chemicals and materials cannot be included in the natural biogeochemical cycle of substances (BGK). Bypassing BGKV, chemicals and materials are entered in geological cycle of substances (GKV), replace the place in ecosystems and limit the functionality of ecosystems in ensuring homeostasis, ”she notes.
According to her, the main causes of the accumulation of chemicals in the environment are that modern production involves a significant amount of chemical, the resource cycles of which are not closed, which leads to significant losses in the form of emissions, discharges and residues of raw materials (waste).

“The total chemicalization of all industries, agriculture, the areas of everyday life and, at the same time, the insufficient modernization of production and the lack of proper control over the quality and composition of chemical waste leads to the problem of their disposal. Toxicants of various chemical nature (aromatic and linear hydrocarbons, heavy metals, pesticides, dioxins, etc.), to one degree or another, have damaging properties and under certain conditions, penetrating the body, have an adverse effect on the state of health, including the human immune system, ”the expert continues.

Every year, 400 thousand tons of especially dangerous waste are formed in Russia, only one and a half percent is disposed of from them. To date, the country does not have a national accounting system for especially dangerous waste, most of them are stored without proper control.

Yesina draws attention to the fact that in Russia and the CIS countries there are practically no state regulations on ecology and ecotoxicology. “Today, about 10 million chemical compounds have been registered, of which 100 thousand are in constant circulation in the field of production and everyday life, and 20-30 thousand are classified as highly toxic. From this number, more than 1000 compounds have immunotoxicity. Some of them are widespread in the environment, others can only get there due to industrial emissions or technogenic accidents, ”says a chemist -technologist.

Speaking about the harmful effects of chemical compounds on human health, the expert emphasizes that almost all chemical xenobiotics affect the state of the immune system. “Currently, a high sensitivity of the immunity system to many chemical compounds has been determined. It is believed that the state of the immune system is the most significant indicator of the influence of chemical xenobiotics on the human body. Immunological methods are informative even when other tests are not yet possible to identify xenobiotics, ”the expert on environmental rights states.

Even a single toxic component affects different compartments of the immunity system, and in most cases a person faces a comprehensive effect of a number of xenobiotics, while toxic (dangerous) waste, the volume of which grow several percent annually, pose a special danger to the environment and human health.

The expert sees a solution to problems with the formation and accumulation of toxic waste, in introducing low -waste resource -saving technologies and new recycling technologies into the production of low -waste resource, neutralizing toxic waste.

At the same time, the absence of a single hazardous waste management center is a serious problem, she says. “Private business himself will not be able to cope with this problem. On the issue of hazardous waste of hazard 1 and 2, there should not and should not be market regulation, ”says Elena Yesina.

Tamara Ashikhina, Chairman of the Committee on Ecology and Nature Management of the Public Chamber of the Kirov Region, Candidate of Chemical Sciences, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor, cites the following statistics: “20 tons of raw materials are spent on each of us a year, of which most (97 %) are waste. Over 2 billion tons of hazardous waste have been accumulated in Russia. This problem is also relevant due to the fact that waste processing becomes a separate sector of the economy. ”

According to Ashkhimina, the participation of the state in creating a system of hazardous waste management is necessary. This can be done by improving the tools of state regulation of this sphere of activity. “Licensing, rationing, strict (hard) accounting of hazardous waste, transparent reporting, strengthening of administrative responsibility of enterprises in whose activities are formed hazardous waste, strengthening their responsibility for the formation of waste of hazard class I and II class. It is also necessary to introduce the obligation of enterprises that form these types of waste, for their disposal, disposal (by analogy with the duty of manufacturers of packaging that has lost consumer properties, to ensure their disposal), ”the ecologist believes.

The bill signed by the President assumes that state regulation will relate to data collection, control and establishing liability for an economically effective and safe system of contractual relations within the system.

The powers to create a unified system of dealing with dangerous special waste will be assigned to the Rosatom State Corporation - such an initiative made the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology.

The federal capacity scheme will include individual entrepreneurs, legal entities with licenses for the processing, disposal, disposal and deposit of waste of the first and second hazard classes.

In addition, it is expected that several former factories for the destruction of chemical weapons will be modernized and re -profiled to dispose of waste of the first and second hazard, taking into account world experience in this area.