Recent amendments to the Administrative Offences Code impose higher financial penalties for breaches of waste management legislation. Below is an overview of the recent changes.
Waste management
Liability for violations of waste handling requirements is now regulated by three Administrative Offences Code articles (instead of one, as before): 6.35, 8.2 and 8.2.3.
Any violation of waste handling rules committed by an organization or a sole trader may result in a suspension of activities for up to 90 days or a fine. The size of the fine depends on which stage of waste treatment the violation was committed, on the type of waste (fines are normally higher for animal waste handling breaches), repeated violation, the presence of harm to human health or the environment, or whether the breach has resulted in an epidemic or epizootic.
Waste limits, waste reporting and classification
Separate offences have been introduced for breaches of legislation regulating waste recordkeeping, setting waste generation and disposal limits, waste classification and inventory of waste disposal / storage areas as well as for breaches of legislation governing environmental monitoring of waste disposal areas.
The fines for the above breaches are the same: from 20 to 40 thousand rubles for company officials, 40 - 60 thousand rubles for individual entrepreneurs and 200 - 350 thousand rubles for companies.
For organisations, the size of fines has grown significantly (compared to the previous ones ranging from 100 to 250 thousand rubles). At the same time, organisations will no longer be subject to the suspension of activities in case of a breach.
Environmental Charge (within the extended producer responsibility framework)
Producers and importers will be penalized under specially introduced articles for violations related to the payment of the environmental charge under the EPR framework:
- Art. 8.5.1 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation - violation of the reporting procedure and submission of the yearly declaration on the quantity of products subject to EPR placed on the Russian market;
- Art. 8.41.1 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation imposes liability for non-payment of the environmental charge. The minimum fine for company officials is 5 thousand rubles, for individual entrepreneurs (sole traders) - 250 thousand rubles, for organizations - 500 thousand rubles.
Handling ozone-depleting and potentially hazardous chemicals
Liability for violation of environmental requirements during handling of ODS and hazardous chemicals is imposed by the following Administrative Offences Code articles:
- Article 8.2.1 imposes liability for environmental breaches during handling substances that destroy the ozone layer (ODS);
- Article 8.2.2 of imposes liability for breaches of environmental legislation during production, handling and disposal of potentially hazardous chemicals.
Environmental impact assessment
The fines for violating environmental impact assessment legislation have been increased.
Law: Federal law of 17.06.2019 N 141-ФЗ (entered into force on June 17, 2019)