Ukraine's Cabinet green-lights pesticides exports to EU for environmentally safe disposal

REUTERS The European Business Association (EBA) says Ukraine&#39;s Cabinet of Ministers has issued a resolution on the control over transboundary movements of hazardous waste and their disposal, thereby allowing the export of pesticides for environmentally friendly methods of disposing. The document was published on the Ukrainian government portal on February 19. Read alsoFAO, Interpol: Illegal pesticide turnover in Ukraine requires immediate action "It so happened that today there are no safe technologies for the disposal of such hazardous waste as pesticides in Ukraine. They were exported to the EU countries until 2015, in particular, to Poland, the United Kingdom and France, which have the necessary capacity for the environmentally safe destruction of plant protection agents (PPA). But due to legislative gaps, the mechanism of cross-border transportation [of hazardous wastes] under the Basel Convention was blocked in our country," the press service quoted EBA Agrochemical Committee Coordinator Viktor Pogorilyi as saying on February 21. In this regard, Ukraine&#39;s Ecology and Natural Resources Ministry did not provide for the certificates on unsuitable pesticides for transboundary movement, which led to their accumulation in Ukraine. "Therefore, today, when the resolution has already been published, the Ecology and Natural Resources Ministry has received the necessary legislative grounds for issuing relevant documents for cross-border transportation of unusable PPAs for their further recycling. This refers to the statements and notifications that will be issued to companies within 10 working days and 60 calendar days, respectively," the press service said. As UNIAN reported earlier, Resolution No. 1212, which allows the export of pesticides abroad for environmentally safe disposal, was adopted by the Cabinet on November 21, 2018. In 2016, the Cabinet approved licensing conditions for hazardous and especially hazardous waste drafted by the Ecology Ministry. Earlier, Ukraine&#39;s Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources Ostap Semerak said that since licensing conditions had not been approved for more than a year, an unregulated and uncompetitive situation had arisen, when pesticides, agrochemicals and pharmaceutical products, which have expired, were disposed in unauthorized places in an uncontrolled and unregulated way. And in the case of drugs, they were repackaged and sold through pharmacies again.

Ukraine's Cabinet green-lights pesticides exports to EU for environmentally safe disposal

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