Perspective of CE in Russia: From Theory to Practice

According to the State Report “Environmental management of the Russian Federation in 2018” 7.27 billion tons of waste was generated in the Russian Federation in 2018. A significant part of this volume is made up of mining and processing waste. The volume of solid municipal waste in 2018 amounted to 53.9 million tons. Only 10% of this volume was sent for recycling. To date the main method of waste management for the Russian Federation is a disposal. The solution to this difficult situation is the economic transformation to the principles of a circular economy. Some of them are already actively developing in the Russian Federation, for example, sharing technologies, the introduction of BAT, the organization of separate waste collection systems, etc. However, many effective tools of a circular economy, such as, industrial symbiosis, recycling are currently not widely used in the Russian Federation. The reason for this is the lack of a systematic approach to creating a waste processing industry, a required institutional base and the presence of remote settlements. At the same time, certain steps are being taken in the Russian Federation towards improving of waste management according to the principle of a circular economy. For example, in 2015 Russia introduced the principle of Extended Producer Responsibility, which makes producers to recycle of their goods that have lost their consumer properties. This mechanism should lead to a decrease of waste generation and ensure their maximum involvement in the economy. Since 2017 the disposal of some types of waste containing recoverable materials has been prohibited. Another mechanism is the creation of eco-industrial parks. In the Russian Federation the creation of 70 eco-industrial parks is planned as basic elements in addressing waste management problems. In eco-industrial parks technological links are formed between production facilities through the exchange (interchange) of resources, which can also be used as waste. At the same time all participants in the eco-industrial parks implement the principle of collective benefit from this cooperation. The article provides information on the project for the creation of an eco-industrial park in Novokuznetsk, in which the main resources are waste from coal mining, metallurgical industries, and energy generating companies. The implementation of the project to create an eco-industrial park in Novokuznetsk will make it possible to involve more than five million tons of waste annually into processing and produce more than four million tons of various types of products. The main tasks that can be solved in the eco-industrial park are the reduction of resource consumption and the reduction of the environmental impact by industrial symbiosis between participants, obtaining economic benefits from such cooperation and sustainable development of the regions.