ENVIRONMENT Minister Peter Žiga will first send the draft bill of the new Waste Act to Brussels for evaluation and only then will he submit it to the cabinet for approval, so as to avoid having to revise the law some months after it is adopted. It is common for laws in Slovakia to be passed before the EU has any say on it.
“We will fix the law [in its wording] as it is today, and eventually we will incorporate into it some of the amendments of our partners and submit it for a notification procedure of bodies of the union,” said Žiga, as cited by the SITA newswire on August 18, adding that he is not afraid of raising any fundamental objections. “A large portion of the articles, or the sense of the law, was taken from EU legislation. It is a very modern and European law.”
This may delay the adoption of the bill by three or four months.
The bill brings several fundamental changes and has been under preparation for several months already. Almost 2,700 objections have already been raised, 1,600 of which are considered to be fundamental. The law introduces the so-called institute of extended responsibility of producers and importers for recycling their products. Based on this, producers and importers of products like cars, electronic products or tyres will be required to secure separated collection and recycling of these products in towns and villages.
It also proposes to cancel the Recycling Fund and tighten conditions for the purchasing of waste materials by waste yards. The ministry is also seeking to cut the amount of waste that ends up in landfill sites. The bill should also solve the issue of abandoned waste. The ministry would like to put this duty on the shoulders of the municipalities, but the latter have opposed it, SITA wrote.
