The involvement of secondary resources in circulation will become a key area of activity for ecologists in the Year of Thrift
The involvement of secondary resources in circulation will become one of the main areas of activity for environmentalists in the Year of Thrift. This was reported to a BELTA correspondent by the Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection, Galina Volchuga, who is taking part in the meeting of the board of the Vitebsk Regional Committee for Natural Resources and Environmental Protection.
For the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection, thrift is primarily the conservation and rational use of natural resources. However, work on involving secondary resources in circulation is no less important, the Deputy Minister emphasized. "The implementation of Decree No. 313 for the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection, the Ministry of Housing and Communal Services, and the regional executive committees will be the main task this year. Its execution should lead to real and serious results," Galina Volchuga is confident.
She also recalled that the current year 2013, which is held under the chairmanship of Belarus in the CIS, has been declared the Year of Ecological Culture and Environmental Protection in the Commonwealth. Therefore, for Belarusian environmentalists, directions in the implementation of projects in the field of ecological culture and environmental protection will be of particular importance.
Decree No. 313 of 11.07.2012 "On Certain Issues of Waste Management" introduces the principle of extended producer responsibility for plastic, glass, paper packaging, as well as complex household appliances, batteries, lubricating oils, lighting devices, and others for the collection, disposal, and/or use of waste generated after the consumer properties of goods and packaging are lost. The essence of "extended producer responsibility," first adopted in Sweden and later enshrined in the acts of the European Community (EC) and other countries, is that producers of goods, including importers, are obliged to be responsible for the goods produced at the end of their life cycle, i.e., for the waste that the goods themselves become after consumption.