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Over the past few years, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture has agreed to ensure waste management plans for up to 1,500 companies
"The waste management field has undergone significant changes over the past few years. "Legislation of Georgia was developed in compliance with the European standards, which regulates issues related to various types of waste management," - said the Minister of Environmental Protection and Agriculture, Mr. Otar Shamugia, while addressing the Members of the Parliament of Georgia, under the framework of the "Minister’s Hour".According to the Minister, in recent years, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture has agreed to ensure waste management plans for up to 1,500 companies, which is crucial, as large manufacturing facilities should properly manage the waste generated in the production process and reduce the facts of environmental pollution from waste.
Despite the progress made in drafting waste management legislation, pollution caused by waste remains a problem. These are problems mainly relating to municipal waste management and problems arising while managing specific waste streams.
Currently, specific waste is not fully collected in Georgia, also the treatment of waste doesn’t comply with the environmental requirements.
"A separate waste collection system should be set up, for which we need to make significant investments at the municipal level.
We will work jointly with the businesses and municipalities to deal with the respective challenges in the coming years, and our country will be able to gradually introduce a system of “Extended Producer Responsibility” (EPR).
"Through the establishment of these mechanisms, we will support: separate waste collection, reuse of waste, and introduction of recovery technologies, as well as, taking steps to reduce the amount of waste in landfills and creating new enterprises and jobs in the waste recycling field," - said Mr. Otar Shamugia.