Bekezhanov D.N.

Doctoral student of Zhetysu State University named after I. Zhansugurov

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF LEGAL REGULATION FEATURES OF WASTE MANAGEMENT IN THE REPUBLIC OF KAZAKHSTAN AND THE REPUBLIC OF POLAND

Abstract. Legal regulation issues of municipal solid waste management were discussed in this paper. It compares the environmental legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Republic of Poland, focusing on similarities and differences in terms of normative and legal acts of two countries.

Keywords: Municipal solid waste, environmental management, environmental safety, environmental law.

The relevance of comparative analysis of legal regulation of environmental protection is due to several reasons. Firstly, it expands the boundaries of interpretation of legal norms and acts of environmental law. Secondly, it allows relying on experience in the latest achievements of legislative activity in developed countries. Thirdly, taking into consideration the legislative mistakes of other countries, it helps to avoid similar mistakes in the process of improving Kazakh legislation. And finally, it is the starting point for multilateral and bilateral cooperation in the field of environmental law.

Modern development of the Republic of Kazakhstan reveals that legal regulation mechanism of natural resource management, regulated by "Environmental Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan”, is not sufficient to ensure the reduction of environmental pollution by municipal solid waste. Lack of flexible specific legal regulation on the micro level, which could allow the use of waste as secondary resources, is likely to lead to urban area pollution from industrial processes. Pollution transformation appears as a result of disposal of solid waste, defined by modern environmental requirements. According to the article of the Environmental Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, there is a cluttering of suburban land spaces, leading to their further unsuitability; deterioration of drinking water due to leakage of geochemical processes in landfills, leading to leak of decay and degradation products into groundwater and surface waters; pollution of the atmosphere by primarily harmful organic substances formed during the combustion of domestic waste [1].

Since 1990, Polish law on environmental protection, as well as Kazakhstan's environmental law, has undergone significant changes. Such legal peripteries indicate similarities of the Kazakh and Polish environmental legislation. To some extent, these changes were due to the need to adapt the right to market economy and political changes in the life of the Kazakh and Polish societies. The rapid development of Polish environmental legislation started in 2000-2004 years. It was at this time, when the Republic of Poland was preparing to join the EU, and it was necessary to bring its legislation into conformity with European standards. During 2005-2009 years the process of improving environmental legislation was the most intensive. This was due to the fact that according to the EU environmental law Member States of the Union had to implement in their legislation or take into account recommendations when adopting new directives and other acts and documents.

These days such a legislative practice continues and will be continued in the future. The fact of implementation into national legislation of EU member states the rules of the Directive by 19 November 2008 "On protection of the environment by criminal law" (up to December 26, 2010) and the Directive by December 12, 2008 on waste, the regulatory procedure of its processing and use of the resulting energy (up to 12 December 2010) may support the above given statement. Polish Waste Act has undergone through several changes. The purpose of these changes, firstly, is the compliance with the EU legislation; secondly, is the coordination with the electoral reforms, administrative, transport and other sectors of the Polish law.

Radecki and Schoytsiech noting these changes, classify them as follows: general principles of administrative decision-making for waste producers and additional terms of processing and recycling of waste; the establishment of a new control system for the management of municipal waste; procedures for hazardous waste management, etc. [2, 79].

Polish law on waste will be considered further. This law included the requirements of the European Union set out in the Framework Directive 75/442 on waste. The purpose of this document is to create a control model for EU Member States to eliminate waste at the national level. The law includes 10 chapters and brings together 80 articles and four annexes: about waste categories; about the categories or types of hazardous waste; about the components of the waste, which allow to classify them as hazardous; about waste characteristics that define hazardous waste; about the actions in the use of waste in a whole or partially, or actions leading to extraction from waste substances, or materials, or energy at the same time with their use; about processes to ensure the safety of waste [3]. This document provides the basic concepts, establishes general and specific guidelines to coordinate waste. It regulates the order of waste management, the duties of the waste owner, thermal conversion of waste, waste collection and storage, an international waste trafficking, and responsibility for violation of waste management.

Any substance or object which belongs to one of the categories listed in the annex to the Law is considered as waste, from which the holder wishes to get rid of, or is required to do so. In addition, Annex 1 contains a list of types of waste: products that do not meet the quality requirements; products with expired date; objects or their parts, which are not suitable for use; substances or objects contaminated as a result of the planned activities; remnants of the industrial production; any substance or objects, the use of which is prohibited by law (e.g. PVC), and others. The provisions of the Law govern the handling of waste and its management. The concept of "waste management" is used more frequently. It includes all legally acceptable waste management methods. The term "recycling" refers to waste management aimed at its re-use. Another important term is "disposal of waste". This term is used when it is necessary to eliminate hazardous characteristics of wastes. Polish legislator refused to ambiguity in the understanding of the terms "recycling" and "disposal". There is a full list of specified actions for waste disposal and recycling. The Act contains the concept of recycling, which is not present in Kazakhstan's bill. This term refers to reprocessing of waste materials in the production process. Such production aims at obtaining original functioned materials or for other purposes (in this case recycling is limited). In Poland, there are other laws that regulate a number of issues for waste disposal. For example, the Law "On the packaging and waste from packaging" consists of seven chapters and 31 articles. This document defines the requirements to be met by packaging in terms of environmental principles, and the management methods of packaging and waste from packaging. The law "On payment of products and payment of deposits" establishes requirements for the collection of food and deposit payments, which are relatively new instruments of environmental protection from threats arising from waste generation and waste management.

The law "On the responsibilities of employers in managing some wastes" consists of eight sections, combining 46 articles. It regulates the duties of employers, manufacturing or importing environmentally harmful products. The main purpose of the bill is the introduction of duties of the employer or producer to provide disposal or recycling of waste products. A similar situation can be observed with the Kazakh law-making in the field of waste management. The Republic of Kazakhstan is an active participant in international cooperation on environmental protection activities, particularly in the area of cross-border movement of waste, management of hazardous, particularly radioactive waste. Regarding international cooperation the following documents were adopted: Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter (1972); The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal (1989); Joint Convention on the Safety of Spent Fuel Management and on the Safety of Radioactive Waste (1997); Intergovernmental Agreement of CIS member states "On the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous and Other Wastes" (1996); Resolution of the Interparliamentary Assembly of CIS member states on the model law "On Waste Production and Consumption " (1998). In 2007, the Republic of Kazakhstan ratified the Stockholm Convention and undertook to withdraw from circulation until 2025 and destroy all persistent organic pollutants (POPs) by 2028. In order to implement the Strategic Plan of Development of Kazakhstan till 2020 the Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan on May 30, 2013 approved the Concept of transition of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the "green economy." Resolution of the Government dated 31 July 2013, approved the plan of measures on realization of the concept of transition of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the "green economy" for 2013 - 2020 years.

On the other hand, growth in the volume of municipal solid waste takes place in the absence of their systematization and classification, therefore it is necessary to develop a set of economic measures based on market economic conditions, to reduce the negative impact of solid waste on the sustainable development of "green economy" [4]. Scientists of Kazakhstan and foreign countries have discussed the issues of legal regulation of municipal solid waste management.

Yerkinbaeva L.K. argues that there is no clear state policy in the law of the Republic of Kazakhstan concerning the packaging materials; the rights and responsibilities of manufacturers of packaging materials are not clearly identified; There are no legislatively established regulation of economic measures, including financing and investment, taxation, packaging materials and waste issues; There is no legally defined state bodies as well as economic entities, which would handle problems with packaging materials and waste; there is a problem of over-regulation of economic activity [5,65].

The dissertation research of Ospanov A.P. is a starting point in the beginning of the study on theoretical problems of legal ensuring safe waste management in the development of domestic legislation regulating the issues related to the waste management. It investigated peculiarities of legal protection of the environment from waste pollution and provides a list of industry principles and specific provisions of legal regulation of relations in the field of waste management [6,15].

According to Mukasheva A.A., rules on safe handling of waste production and consumption need to find their place in the general part of environmental law, as they are generic to all legal institutions of Environmental Law [7,186].

Abdraimova M.J. raises issues of ecological safety and environmental protection of the interests and rights of the individual, society and state from threats arising from man-made and natural impacts on the environment [8,10].

Baideldinov D.L. states that the subject of environmental law is environmental relations, the subject of which is nature and its constituent elements [9.10].

However, it is unlikely that the rules on environmental safety constitute an independent Institute of Environmental Law. Expanding the subject of environmental law is due to the inclusion of relations on protection of environmental rights and legal interests of individuals, legal entities and the state.

Brinchuk M.M. breaks an established scheme of environmental law subject. According to Brinchuk M.M., the object of this industry form property relations on natural sites and resources, on nature management, on environmental protection from various forms of degradation, for the protection of environmental rights and legal interests of individuals and entities [10, 63]. This view is supported by Bekisheva S.D., who states that as a subject of legal regulation of modern environmental law may act the relations on protection of environmental rights and legal interests of individuals, legal entities and the state, on the protection of the environment (environment protection relations), and the rational use of natural resources (natural resource relations).

Bekisheva S.D. considers that the first group of relations should definitely be highlighted in the definition of environmental law, taking into consideration currently given importance to environmental rights and interests of the individual in the Republic of Kazakhstan . This view is supported by young researchers as well. For example, Kurmanova A.K. considers that an analysis of the current legislation on environmental protection and utilization of natural resources indicates that the interaction between society and nature is allocated by a number of relation groups which are not covered by the relations of nature management and environmental protection. This is, firstly, the relation for the conservation and protection of environmental rights and responsibilities; secondly, the relation to obtain an ecological trouble zone status by the territory and exit from it [11, 9].

The following conclusions can be drawn based on the analysis undertaken. There is no a special law in the country on regulation of relations in the field of waste production and consumption. However, the existing legal framework in field of environmental protection allows managing a number of provisions of the Basel Convention. In this regard, there is a need to improve current legislation. This is possible through the adoption of the law on waste or new regulations, as well as amendments and additions to the already existing legal acts. Thus, the presence of the above-mentioned laws (and bylaws) creates a legal framework for the coordination of the process of waste management in the Republic of Kazakhstan and in the Republic of Poland. They are united by a single regulatory method and used legal instruments. These regulations generally correspond to European Union and international law requirements.

References:

1. The ecological Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan of January 9, 2007 No. 212-III

2. Radecki, Wojciech. Opchaty i kary pienisne w ochronie grodowiska: komentarz do przepisów ustaw: prawo ochrony grodowiska, o odpadach, o miCdzynarodowym obrocie odpadami, o ochronie przyrody/Wojciech Radecki. Ksieka. Warszawa: Difin, cop. 2009. 279 s.: il.; 23 cm.Decyzja 2000/532/WE - Moliwog ć mieszania ze sobE odpadów oznaczonych różnymi kodami − PojCcie "opakowania mieszane"

3. About modification and additions in the resolution of the government of the Republic of Kazakhstan of July 31, 2013 No. 750 "About the approval of the Plan of measures on implementation of the Concept on transition of the Republic of Kazakhstan to "green economy" for 2013 - 2020"

4. Erkinbayeva L. K. Problems of legal protection of the environment from pollution by packing waste in the Republic Kazakhstan//Vestnik KazNU. – A series is legal. – 2011. – No. 3(59). – item 114.

5. Opanov A. P. Legal protection of the environment from pollution by industrial wastes and consumption in the Republic of Kazakhstan: thesis of Candidate of Law Sciences. – Almaty, 2012. – 133 pages.

6. Mukasheva A. A. Problems of legal support of ecological safety at the treatment of production wastes and consumption in the Republic of Kazakhstan. Monograph. – Astana, 2015. – 210 pages.

7. Abdraimova M. Zh. Problems of legal support of ecological safety of the Republic of Kazakhstan: thesis of Candidate of Law Sciences. – Almaty, 2007. – 140 pages.

8. Baydeldinov D. L., Bekisheva S. D. Ecological right of the Republic of Kazakhstan. – Almaty: Interligal, 2004. – 312 pages.

9. Brinchuk M. M. Ecological right: Textbook. Second edition. – M.: Lawyer, 2003.-. 670 pages.

10. Bekisheva S. D. Ecological right of the Republic of Kazakhstan: education guidance. - Karaganda: Arko, 2001. – 254 pages.

11. Kurmanova A. K. Еcological-legal support of sanitary and epidemiologic wellbeing of the population: thesis of Candidate of Law Sciences. – Almaty, 2007. – 152 pages.