Meters squared: fees for garbage collection may change in the regions
Fees for garbage collection may change in Russian regions. Currently, in most regions, this indicator depends on the number of tenants in an apartment, but the government advised local authorities to consider a different system, depending on the size of the apartment, Izvestia learned. Almost 20% of Russians have a second home in which they are not registered. It turns out that people do not pay for the removal of waste from it, although they often rent out their premises, including to tourists, experts said.
How to pay for garbage collection in the Russian Federation
Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Patrushev held a meeting with the regions on the environmental agenda back in early February. As a result, the local authorities were instructed to assess how rational it is to switch to a new payment system for garbage collection. The regions must report on the work done to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment by April 29. This is stated in the minutes of the meeting, which was reviewed by Izvestia.
Now the regions independently decide how people pay for garbage on the ground. Basically, this indicator is calculated by the number of registered residents in the residential area. This approach began to be applied back in the USSR, where the first studies and assessments of how people generate waste at different times of the year were conducted.
However, there are already regions in the Russian Federation where they pay for waste, depending on how many square meters a person has at their disposal. This method is used in the largest cities of the country — in Moscow and St. Petersburg, as well as in the Moscow, Leningrad, Amur, Vladimir, Irkutsk, Kaluga, and Kirov regions, in just 15 regions, the Russian Environmental Operator (REO) reminded Izvestia.
The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment stressed to Izvestia that the final decision on this issue will be made by the subjects of Russia, as stipulated by current legislation.
Izvestia sent inquiries to all regions of the Russian Federation.
In the Magadan region, the fee for garbage collection is calculated based on the number of people registered in an apartment — this is quite fair, we are sure in the region, since it is not meters that accumulate garbage, but people, the local government told Izvestia. The calculation, depending on the housing area, makes it impossible to recalculate, for example, if a person "went on vacation for a couple of weeks, does not accumulate garbage, but it will not be possible to save money on this: the fee is charged from the squares."
In the Tula region, we agree with colleagues, because "people produce garbage, not square meters," although there are difficulties in calculating using this method in the region — it is necessary to identify citizens actually living in the premises. But the government of the Kaluga Region noted that accounting for the area is a more equitable approach. In this case, "an objective parameter is used, it eliminates the necessary calculation of individual consumption and ensures an equal approach to all owners and users of residential premises," they said.
In the Russian Federation, there are restrictions on the circulation of personal data, the government of the Orel region reminded the editorial staff. This means that it is objectively difficult to establish the actual number of residents. While information about the total area of residential premises is more accessible, it can be used to charge utility bills, they added.
The Bryansk region did not support the transition to a standard that depends on the housing area. "This does not reflect an accurate picture of the formation of municipal solid waste in the room, since their volume depends on the number of people living in the room, and not on square meters," the local government added.
The government of the Samara region is confident, for example, that paying for garbage collection based on the number of people living in an apartment can increase the amount for a service for large families who live in a small area.
How will the transition to the new system help the regions
Most of the subjects are now calculating fees for garbage collection, depending on the number of people in a residential building, said Svetlana Razvorotneva, deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Construction and Housing and Communal Services. The principle of accounting for square meters is usually used in areas with high migration, when it is quite difficult to calculate the number of people actually living in an apartment or house.
— It's hard to say which approach is more rational, because both methods represent average values, so people are unhappy: they prove in the courts that the existing payment systems are unfair. Until the country switches to individual waste accounting, when each person's waste is weighed on a site with containers, the situation is unlikely to change," the deputy told Izvestia.
According to Rosreestr, about 20% of the Russian population has a second home, half of them have a house, Elena Vishnyakova, deputy general director of the EcoLine group (which develops two regional garbage collection operators), reminded Izvestia. If the cost of waste disposal services is calculated based on the number of people registered in a residential building, then it can be assumed that about 20% of Russians may drop out of this process.
— It is likely that no one is registered in the second apartment, but tenants live there, and most likely densely. It should be borne in mind that now a huge number of people live without a residence permit. And about the same number of people use short—term rental services, not to mention the fact that domestic tourism is growing at an explosive pace in Russia," the expert explained. — As a result, a large number of people are not paying for the service, which means that its price will increase.
Therefore, Elena Vishnyakova is sure that a square meter for calculation is the only fair approach to paying for garbage collection. Moreover, this indicator is now used to calculate fees for other services: for example, for heating, the same principle is used when making contributions to the capital repair fund, she added.
How the fee for waste disposal in the regions will change, if it depends on the area of the apartment, is difficult to guess at the moment, Andrei Shirokov, head of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Committee on Entrepreneurship in Housing and Communal Services, told Izvestia. For example, if two people live on 100 square meters, then the fee for them may increase with the new approach.
— In any case, it should be understood that the money received will be used to develop a system for separate collection of garbage and its further processing, — said the expert. — Like many countries, we are faced with a serious problem of accumulated garbage and its disorderly storage. Therefore, instead of storing it in landfills or, even worse, illegally in spontaneous landfills in forests, waste should be separated and some fractions processed into consumer goods. To do this, the population should be included in the process, and the process of separate waste accumulation should be made profitable for people. But this issue has not been fully resolved yet.
The REO recalled that the reform of the MSW management system in the country started in 2019, its goal is to send only half of the waste to landfills and bury it. The rest of the volume should be processed: sorted and sent for recycling, which will allow waste to be recycled. This means that consumer goods will be able to be produced from such raw materials. Currently, there are almost 300 enterprises operating in the Russian Federation that sort (148) and recycle waste (81) or do everything together. As a result, almost 57% of the garbage is now shared. The company plans to create more than 300 facilities by 2030, which will allow it to involve about 25% in secondary turnover, and new goods will be produced from this volume, the operator added.
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