A round table was held on December 17th, 2018 from 11:00 to 13:00 in the Public chamber of the Russian Federation. The topic of the round table — «Environmental and recycling fee – the future changes». The event was attended by the EcoTyresUnion Executive Director Sergey Podoynikov and legal counsel Anna Zakharova.
The event had a rich program and included presentations by representatives of nonprofit organizations (the EcoTyresUnion, the Association «SKO Elektronika i Utilizatsia», RusPACK), Federal Executive authorities (Ministry of economic development of Russia, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of natural resources and ecology of the Russian Federation) and processing enterprises (EcoStar Technology, Ltd., LLC «RUS SOSHKI»). The moderator of the round table was the Chairman of the Commission on ecology and environmental protection of the Public chamber of the Russian Federation – A.E. Dudareva.
The topic of the round table was determined in connection with the development and publication of the draft Federal law «on amendments to parts one and two of the Tax code of the Russian Federation (regarding the inclusion of certain non-tax payments in the Tax code of the Russian Federation)» by the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation at the end of November.
The draft law is of serious concern to business and non-profit sector due to the introduction of non-alternative recycling fee and the exclusion of the mechanism of independent compliance with the recycling norms as part of extended producer responsibility. The participants of the round table came to the general conclusion that the adoption of the draft law in the current version will lead to negative socio-economic consequences: the termination of already concluded contracts for the services of waste processors, the stop of initiated projects for waste collection, for businesses — the loss of investment in the infrastructure of waste collection and recycling, the elimination of specialized non-profit organizations.
The EcoTyresUnion is currently taking an active part in the discussions on the amendments to this draft law. On December 14th the profile non-profit organizations founded by the manufacturers and importers of tyres, packaging and electronics for independent compliance with the recycling norms – the EcoTyresUnion, RusPACK and the Association «SKO Elektronika i Utilizatsia» — sent a letter to The Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, D.A. Medvedev, in which they argueed in favour of the importance of preserving the possibility of independent EPR compliance as a priority way of business responsibility.
