A new Swedish-Ukrainian multi-year initiative “Strengthening household waste management” – WM4U – has begun work in Ukraine.
The presentation took place in Kyiv on October 11.
The program will be funded by the Swedish government through the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and will be implemented by the Swedish Association for Waste and Recycling Management (Avfall Sverige) and the international arm of the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SALAR International) and will last from 2024 to 2 — said the head of the program Olga Glazunova.
The initiative is based on:
- Sweden’s strategy for cooperation with Ukraine in the field of recovery and reform for 2023-27;
- integration of Ukraine into the EU and implementation of EU legislation on environmental protection and waste management;
- Paris Agreement, COP28 and Sustainable Development Goals.
The program was launched based on a request from the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky during a meeting in Ukraine with the Prime Minister of Sweden in 2022, noted Martina Quick, Deputy Head of Mission of the Embassy of the Kingdom of Sweden in Ukraine.
During this time, the Law “On Waste Management” was adopted for the first time in Ukraine and its implementation began. At the same time, the Plan for the Integration of Ukraine into the EU contains a number of requirements in this area, in particular:
- The EU Waste Framework Directive stipulates that 60% of EU countries’ waste must be reused by 2030. According to Quick, this is a big challenge for any country, not just Ukraine during the war;
- The state of affairs with household waste requires immediate reform and bringing it into line with EU standards.
From the USSR, our state received the simplest system for handling household waste, noted First Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine Elena Kramarenko at the event.
10 million tons of household waste, of which more than 90% are buried. Almost 6 thousand landfills and landfills do not meet environmental requirements. At the same time, the country’s economy is losing millions of tons of valuable resources: waste paper, paper, polymers, metal. We are changing this paradigm and Sweden’s help is very important for us here,” she said.
According to her, the goal of the reform is to adopt laws on extended producer responsibility, create conditions for attracting investors in the development and development of waste processing infrastructure and business development in this sector.
Deputy Minister for Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine Vasily Shkurakov focused on the fact that settlements in Ukraine suffered significant destruction due to military aggression. In particular, their infrastructure, which ensures the livelihoods of communities, needs to be restored. In addition, recycling waste from war destruction is a big challenge.
According to preliminary assessment:
- 23 regions in Ukraine have already reported the need to create more than 200 sorting lines;
- Design documentation has already been developed for 17 projects;
- 19 regions noted the need to build more than 50 waste processing plants.
SALAR International program manager Pontus Ferberg emphasized that among the goals of the program is strengthening national and local waste management.
At the local and regional levels, the program will support pilot projects to implement the entire chain of household waste management:
- knowledge sharing;
- provision of equipment;
- providing other assistance to local authorities in upgrading light infrastructure and waste management technologies to achieve EU standards.
We are also talking about planning investments in large processing plants.
Source: Racurs
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.