23/09/2016

Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment plans to introduce a procedure for mandatory packaging utilization

The list of waste materials designated for mandatory utilization by producers and importers may be expanded with a new section titled "finished product packaging". The draft Governmental resolution proposed by the Ministry of Natural Resources could be accessed on the website regulation.gov.ru. Under the proposed scheme, companies will carry responsibility for the fate of retail market packaging made out of metal, plastic, wood and textiles. 

Starting from Q3 2015, producers and exporters have been obligated either to utilize the waste associated with the product or the packaging or to pay a fee. However, they have not been forced to pay anything thus far, because of the zero utilization rate set for the year 2015. The businesses will have to make their first payments in 2017 for the year 2016. Up until 1 April 2016 they had the trial option of submitting declarations describing the volume of products and packaging they produced or imported, said Natalya Solovyova, Head of the State Environmental Supervision Department. Only several hundred declarations were submitted. Russia's Natural Resources Minister Sergey Donskoy believes that in 2017 at least RUB 1 billion will be paid in fees. 

The currently valid list includes 36 groups of products, including packaging. The majority of producers and importers encountered problems in their attempts to produce declarations due to the presence of ambiguously worded regulations and the impossibility to identify their packaging using the codes provided in the current list: packaging is not included in customs declarations. 

The new version drafted by the Ministry classifies packaging by production material. The classification has been derived from the Technical Regulations of the Customs Union. Producers and importers will have an easier time figuring out what exactly they should declare.

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