The Association of Trading Companies and Commodity Manufacturers of Electrical Household and Computer Equipment warned of a possible increase in the price of batteries due to changes in the scheme for the disposal of hazardous waste. RBC writes about this, referring to a letter from the president of the association, Alexander Onishchuk, to Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin.
According to the new rules, from March 1, 2022, FEO will become the sole operator for handling waste of hazard class I-II, which includes batteries: it will collect, process and dispose of them.
It turns out that companies will have to pay extra to the intermediary for recycling, while now most manufacturers collect and store batteries on their own, work under direct contracts with recycling plants.
Business representatives note that the involvement of a third party for a contract with a waste disposal plant will only cause additional financial costs and reputational risks. In addition, some organizations have already refused to renew the processing contract due to the new rules.
Also, representatives of manufacturers and sellers point to several risks. For example, part of the existing infrastructure for the separate collection of batteries may be closed and the level of their recycling may decrease due to the reduction in the availability of collection points. There is a risk of increasing the financial and administrative burden on the population due to the monopolization of the collection and processing of waste.
In turn, the authorities consider the fears unfounded, since nothing fundamentally will change. Now there is a streamlining of regulation, which is in the "gray zone". The main difference from the old scheme is that waste must be handed over to a single operator, and not in a box in a store.
At the end of December, it became known that Federal State Unitary Enterprise Federal Ecological Operator (FEO), which is part of the state corporation Rosatom, will start collecting old batteries from Russian citizens on March 1, 2022.
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