Circular Economy in the Russian Federation: Problems and Potential for the Development

In Russia, in modern conditions, the relevance of the transition to the principles of a circular economy is growing. However, it’s still no legislation directly regulating this process, and only some legislative acts could be considered as indirect attribution to the legislative framework for the circular economy principles’ implementation. First of all, this refers to the sphere of waste management. The priorities for the development of the waste management system are defined in the federal law “On Waste of Production and Consumption” and in the strategy for the development of industry for the processing, utilization, and disposal of waste of production and consumption for the period up to 2030. The goals of the strategy are the prevention and reduction of waste generation and involvement of waste as secondary materials in the process of production. Today, the main problems in the sphere of waste management in Russia are as follows: disposal of waste in unauthorized dumps; lack of a sufficient number of waste management facilities; lack of sorting and processing facilities; undeveloped system for separate waste collection and secondary resources market. The hierarchy of waste management methods is officially focused on maximum use of secondary materials in production processes. But at the moment, the contribution of the waste management industry to the gross domestic product of the Russian Federation is very low (about 3%). Nowadays, a large number of valuable secondary resources stay within the flow of municipal solid waste and go to landfills. Currently, the regional operators in the field of MSW management are responsible for organizing of secondary resources circulation. In the absence of material interest, the percentage of recycling for the main types of secondary resources (paper, plastic, glass) remains quite low. In accordance with the adopted federal legislation, the principle of extended producer responsibility will be implemented in Russia, which expected to increase the percentage of involvement of secondary resources in production cycle. Also, one of the directions of development of the circular economy related to industrial waste is the creation of eco-industrial parks in the regions of Russia. The Purpose of the Chapter: to describe the current state of the waste management industry in the Russian Federation, problems in the field of waste management, and potential for the development of the circular economy in Russia.