Kazakhstan

April 7, 2021

Effective waste management is one of the most typical environmental issues, especially during the quarantine measures taken due to the threat of spread of Covid-19. Based on the World Bank¹, the waste generation will increase from 2.01 billion ton in 2016 to 3.40 billion ton in 2050 in the course of urbanization, economic develop­ment and population growth in the countries and cities. Currently at least 33 per cent of this waste is recycled in the wrong way around the world.

In Kazakhstan the waste management problem is no less critical. The government is taking various actions on the way of solving this problem. Thus, development of the efficient waste management system is one of the fundamental principles of the Concept for Transition of the Republic of Kazakhstan to “Green Economy”². According to this Concept, by 2030 a part of waste recycling should have been increased to 40 per cent, and to 50 per cent by 2050. According to the “Business Roadmap 2025”³, list of the priority sectors of the national economy covers the field of waste collection, recycling, disposal and utilization.

This publication highlights some specific measures arranged by the government in order to improve the situation; successfulness of their practical implementation, main reasons for their ineffectiveness and the latest trends of development and modification of the Kazakhstani environmental legislation, including introduction of the new Environmental Code⁴. For the purpose of this publication, the term of “waste” generally refers to the solid domestic and industrial waste.

• CURRENT SITUATION »
• LEGAL CONTROL OF WASTE MANAGEMENT IN KAZAKHSTAN »
• SCOPE OF PROBLEMS OF THE WASTE HANDLING »
• TRENDS FOR DEVELOPMENT AND AMENDMENT OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL CODE »

Current Situation

According to the studies held by KB Strelka⁵ based on the Report “What a Waste 2.0: A Global Snapshot of Solid Waste Management to 2050” prepared in 2018 by the World Bank, in comparison with the developed countries, Kazakhstan is ineffective in terms of the waste utilization.

In the dissertation of A.G. Bekturova⁶ it is written that the volume of the solid domestic waste (SDW) in the country was approximately 5-6 million ton, and by 2025 the figure could reach 8 million ton according to the data of the Waste Management Department of the Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan as of 2018.

According to the Report of the Minister of Ecology, Geology and Natural Resources, M. Mirzagaliyev on the accomplished work, as of 2019 the volume of waste accumulated was 125 million tons of the SDW in Kazakhstan. Over 5 million tons of the SDW is generated per annum.⁷

According to the Association of the Environmental Specialists: “There are 3,000 landfills used in the country, where 620 landfills which make 18 per cent of them comply with the sanitary requirements, and 82 per cent do not comply with the sanitary requirements of Kazakhstan”.⁸ Generally a great deal of waste is buried, this does not solve the problem of their utilization or removal (disposal), and it only postpones and accumulates the existing volumes of waste. Urgency of the problem is clearly demonstrated by the statistics published by the Committee on Statistics of the Ministry of National Economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan⁹ (see Fig. 1). 

In the presentation of the Association of Environmental Specialists it is pointed out that 8618 unauthorized landfill sites have been found in 2018 in Kazakhstan, 4321 illegal dumping sites of which are still in use¹⁰.

Legal Control of Waste Management in Kazakhstan

Issue of the waste handling and management in Kazakhstan is regulated by the legislative and regulatory acts of various levels. The Environmental Code of 2007¹¹ and from July 1, 2021 – the Environmental Code of 2021 adopted on January 2, 2021 are the main regulatory legal acts in this area as of the date of this publication. For the purposes of this publication, the “Environmental Code” (undated) means the regulatory legal act as such. The Environmental Code guides and governs all stages of waste handling, including their detection and burial. Main issues in terms of the waste management and handling regulated at the legislative level are provided below.

OWNERSHIP OF WASTE

Ownership of waste and its transfer are guided and governed by the Articles 283-285 of the Environmental Code (2007) and Articles 339-340 of the Environmental Code (2021). Issues of the ownerless hazardous waste as of the date of this publication are guided and governed by the Rules for the control of the ownerless hazardous waste recognized by the court decision as received into the republican ownership¹². In addition, these Rules for the control of the ownerless hazardous waste will be approved in the new revision in the nearest time due to adoption of the Environmental Code as of 2021.

 

WASTE CLASSIFICATION

Waste classification according to the Environmental Code of 2007 is envisaged by the Articles 286 and 287. Moreover, the Waste Classifier which determines a hazard level and coding of waste is envisaged by the Order issued by the Minister for Environment of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated May 31, 2007¹³. Waste classifier is intended for use in the waste handling system, including the accounting, control, rationing when handling the waste, licensing of the relevant types of activities, issue of permits for transboundary movement and emplacement of waste, designing of the environmental structures and implementation of the environmental measures, assessment of the social, economic, resource-and-material risk and damage in case of accidents and disasters. According to the Environmental Code of 2021, waste classification is regulated by the Article 338. Due to adoption of the Environmental Code of 2021, approval of the new revision of the waste classifier is also expected in the nearest time.

EXTENDED PRODUCERS RESPONSIBILITY

As well as in some other countries, for example, in Russia, an institution of the extended producers (importers) responsibility (“EPR”) has been introduced in Kazakhstan from January 1, 2016 which is meant to be the responsibilities of producers (importers) ensuring the collection, transportation, recycling, neutralization, use and (or) disposal of waste generated after loss of the consumer attributes of certain products. In the Environmental Code of 2007, EPR and their implementation methods are regulated by the Chapter 41-1; and by the Chapter 31 in the Environmental Code of 2021.

In the context of the Environmental Code of 2007, the List of the EPR covered products (goods) is approved by the Order issued by the acting Minister of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated December 4, 2015¹⁴. From 2016 the EPR requirements are applicable for the motor vehicles and vehicle components; from 2017 for paper, cardboard, metal, glass and combined package, as well as for the electrical and electronic equipment; from December 23, 2019 for the farming equipment. In the context of the Environmental Code of 2021, the List in the new revision is not yet approved as of the date of this publication.

Responsible organization, Operator ROP LLP (“Operator”) has been established by the Governmental Decree of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated December 30, 2015¹⁵ in order to implement the EPR principle. This organization is reporting to the Ministry of Ecology, Geology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The Operator is responsible to establish the unified system of the integrated waste management of products (goods) and involve these wastes into circulation as secondary raw materials, promote the infrastructural development of the waste recycling industry with an extensive business involvement.

The EPR Strategy is implemented as follows: producers or importers of the EPR-covered goods shall sign an agreement with the Operator and pay to the Operator’s bank account for arranging the waste collection, transportation, recycling and (or) disposal. Amount of fee is determined in accordance with the Calculation Methods¹⁶.

Pursuant to the Article 285-2 of the Environmental Code of 2007/Article 338 of the Environmental Code of 2021, the Operator transfers the funds received at their account to compensate the individuals and legal entities for the costs of separate collection and recycling of waste from the products (goods), compensation to producers of the food staples, as well as to encourage production of the environmentally friendly motor vehicles in Kazakhstan, for example by financing the use of energy resources by the producers or research and development, design and experimental developments and performance of the products testing.

WASTE BURIAL AND REQUIREMENTS FOR LANDFILLS

Requirements for the landfills area and durable waste dump are set in the Chapter 43 of the Environmental Code of 2007. “The List of waste to be disposed at landfills  of various categories”¹⁷ has been approved by the Order issued by the acting Minister for Environment of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated August 2, 2007. Moreover the Sanitary Rules for Design and Maintenance of the Solid Domestic Waste Landfills¹⁸ have been approved by the Chief State Health Inspector of the Republic of Kazakhstan. In the Environmental Code of 2021, landfill requirements are regulated by the Chapter 25. It is also planned to approve the new revision of the List of waste to be disposed at landfills of various categories.

TARIFFS FOR COLLECTION, REMOVAL, DISPOSAL, RECYCLING AND BURIAL OF THE SOLID DOMESTIC WASTE

Area of waste handling is regulated with the tariffs determined by the local executive bodies (Akimats) and the Operator in accordance with the “Methods for Calculating the Tariffs for Collection, Removal, Disposal, Recycling and Burial of the Solid Domestic Waste”¹⁹. Tariffs calculated are finally approved by the local representative bodies (Maslikhats). Individual tariffs are provided for each regional center and city of national status.

WASTE GENERATION AND CALCULATION

Procedure for calculation of rates for the generation and accumulation of the household waste in settlements is regulated by the Order issued by the Minister of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated November 25, 2014²⁰. For the purpose to account the waste, users of natural resources and entities involved in the waste collection, removal, disposal, recycling, storage and placement or discharge operations must submit the Waste Inventory Reports on annual basis to the regional offices of the Ministry of Ecology, Geology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Kazakhstan in accordance with the Order issued by the acting Minister of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated July 29, 2016.²¹

MEASURES FOR THE GREEN SPACE CONSERVATION AND PROTECTION

Issues on the green space maintaining and protecting, as well as the land improvement are regulated by the Rules for the Maintenance and Protection of Green Spaces, the Rules for the Improvement of Territories of Cities and Towns.²²

Scope of Problems of the Waste Handling 

For the purpose of reducing the volume of waste, Kazakhstan aims to more rarely resort to the landfill depositing and increasingly use such alternative methods of waste disposal, such as for example waste recycling. A matter of recycling is one of the most complex and critical missions in the waste management system. 

In the most part of the developed countries, waste recycling is such a profitable business, that some countries are not only successfully coping with the waste recycling locally but also buying waste from the other countries. However Kazakhstan started practicing it relatively recent and, as for now it may be said that Kazakhstan is still at the initial stage of development.

According to the Report issued by the Minister of Ecology, Geology and Natural Resources, Mr. M. Mirzagaliyev on the work done in 2019, 125 million tons of the SDW have been accumulated in the country, over 5 million tons of the SDW is generated annually. In Kazakhstan, the capacity of landfills is insufficient, and 83 per cent of landfills do not comply with the environmental and sanitary standards; but as a matter of fact they are just unauthorized dumping grounds.

According to the Information on the waste reduction, recycling and reuse published on the official website of the e-government, since approval of the Concept for Transition of the Republic of Kazakhstan to “Green Economy”²³, Kazakhstan has achieved the results in terms of the SDW recycling, which include but not limited to the following:

IMPROVEMENT OF THE LEGISLATIVE AND REGULATORY FRAMEWORK

• From 2016, it is prohibited to bury (dispose) the mercury-containing lamps and devices, scrap metals, used oils and liquids, batteries and electronic waste at landfills;
• Prohibition for burial of the plastic, waste paper, cardboard and waste paper, as well as glass is effective from 1 January 2019.
   

RECOVERY OF EXPENSES FOR COLLECTION, TRANSPORTATION AND RECYCLING OF THE SECONDARY RAW MATERIALS

In 2016-2018, more than 50 enterprises have been compensated for a total amount of about KZT 7 billion; volume of the vehicle components collected and recycled was 100,553 tons.

NEW ENTERPRISES

• 1 enterprise of used antifreezes disposal based in Almaty, capacity of 5.4K tons/year;
• 1 enterprise of used accumulator battery disposal based in Pavlodar, capacity of 3K tons/year;
• 2 enterprises of used oils disposal based in Nur-Sultan and Karaganda, total capacity of over 20 K tons/year;
• 8 enterprises of used tires disposal based in Taldykorgan, Almaty, Aktobe, Ust-Kamenogorsk, Shymkent, Nur-Sultan, as well as in Atyrau and Karaganda regions with the total capacity of 16 K tons/year. 
   

WASTE MANAGEMENT INFRASTRUCTURE

• 9112 containers, where 346 containers are for collection of the electronic and electrical waste, 2321 containers for collection of the mercury-containing lamps and chemical power sources have been installed in a number of regions and cities of Kazakhstan, including the cities of the national status; 
• 99 stations for collection of the secondary raw materials, and 39 stations for collection of the electronic and electrical waste have been established; separate collection of waste at various stages has been implemented in 51 cities and regions out of 204; waste sorting has been arranged in 30 settlements;
• Waste sorting station of capacity of 50K tons/year has been launched in Mangystau Region; sort-line of capacity of 100K tons/year was constructed in Ust-Kamenogorsk city, and a waste sorting plant of capacity of 100K tons/year was launched at the SDW landfill in Uralsk city.

The mentioned measures allowed increasing a share of the SDW recycling from 2.6 (2016) to 11.51 per cent (2018). However, this figure is still significantly lower than in the developed countries, where a share of recycling exceeds 30 per cent.

There are many reasons why the share of recycling in Kazakhstan is still low nowadays and the waste management system is ineffective. All of these reasons are closely related to each other in any case. Such problems may be distinguished as major ones, as (1) low tariffs for the SDW collection, removal, disposal, recycling and burial; (2) lack of proper sorting of waste; (3) lack of the industry financing; (4) absence of a competitive environment; (5)  underdeveloped market of the secondary raw materials, and (6) a systemic issue.

LOW TARIFFS FOR THE COLLECTION, REMOVAL, DISPOSAL, RECYCLING AND BURIAL OF THE SOLID DOMESTIC WASTE

As pointed out above, field of the waste management is regulated by the tariffs approved by the local representative bodies (Maslikhats).

Tariff plan for waste removal services in the main regional centers and cities of the national status in Kazakhstan approved for 2020 is shown on the Fig. 2²⁴

Charges paid by the population according to the established tariffs are the main compensation for the costs of waste removal companies for removal and disposal of the solid domestic waste. As of today, these tariffs as shown on the Fig. 2 are inadequately low, and generally they do not cover even the costs for the waste removal and disposal. This does not encourage the growth of interest to this field of activities on the part of business operators.

LACK OF PROPER SORTING OF WASTE

To achieve high performance in the waste recycling in the country, first of all it is necessary to arrange the proper sorting of waste and institutionalize a separate collection of waste. According to Sergei Luschinsky, Director of LS-KOKSHETAU LLP, a company that arranges collection, transportation and recycling of the secondary raw materials²⁴, when a pre-sorted waste is delivered to the waste sorting plant, it can be recycled to 50 per cent; in the absence of pre-sorting, the waste recycling indicator is only 5-7 per cent.

According to Kazinform with reference to the Press Service Office of the Ministry of Energy: “Currently, a separate collection of waste at various stages has been introduced in 51 settlements out of 204 cities and towns throughout the Republic; sorting is arranged in 28 settlements (11 sorting lines, 17 manual sorting at the SDW landfills)”²⁵. Nevertheless, despite the installation of containers for the separate collection of waste, informational work with the population, and generally the environmental consciousness of the population in the country still remains at a low level.

According to the Article 505.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses²⁶, an administrative liability in the form of warning or a fine for the individuals in amount of 20 MCI and from 30 MCI to 100 MCI for legal entities subject to the category of business entity is envisaged for violation of the Rules for improvement of territories of cities and towns, as well as destruction of the infrastructure facilities, destruction and damage of green spaces in the cities and towns. Violation of the Rules for improvement of territories of cities and towns includes the dumping of waste in a wrong place, without limitations. Since nowadays there is no mechanism for fixing these offenses, as a matter of practice the standard is either not efficient enough or just not working at all.

According to E. Nehring, 2020, lack of the environmental education makes a waste sorting ineffective in Kazakhstan: schools do not pay enough attention to the problem of waste sorting.²⁷ A lack of automated sorting is due in no small part to the ineffective sorting of waste: since people are not sure if the waste they throw away will eventually be recycled or sent to an “illegal dumping landfill”, many of them find no sense in separating the waste dumped.

LACK OF THE INDUSTRY FINANCING

It is obvious that at this stage in terms of the waste recovery, Kazakhstan cannot compete with the developed countries without the foreign investments. However, despite the significant volume of waste and secondary raw materials for recycling, at this stage the foreign investors are not ready to invest in the Kazakhstani waste recycling industry.

According to Mr. Egor Zinger, the co-founder of the “Garbage Business” in Kazakhstan, the problem is that there are no preferences provided, in addition to the low tariffs for the business operators in the “garbage business”; and the governmental support for the environmental business projects is just of the declaratory signification. Thus, in his interview, Mr. Zinger states: “Think for instance of loans. Today the rates of Kazakhstani banks are 12 per cent per annum, while in the Scandinavian countries these rates do not exceed 3 per cent. But if it is about the environment related projects, and then their loans are given at a rate of 0.5 per cent !There are no such figures in our banking system; no financier will give you a loan at such a minimum rate!”²⁸.
 

ABSENCE OF A COMPETITIVE ENVIRONMENT

As has been demonstrated by the European experience, high performance in the field of waste recycling are generally and mainly achieved by means of private companies. According to the Report of DAMU RG Research Group LLP, a field of waste management in Kazakhstan is mainly directly or indirectly owned by the government, a private initiative is very limited; this hinders the development of natural competition at the market.²⁹ According to researches by the Association of the Environmental Specialists, a share of waste recycling is higher in the large cities of Kazakhstan, since among other factors, there are more private structures³⁰ involved in the collection of waste and their further recycling.

UNDERDEVELOPED MARKET OF THE SECONDARY RAW MATERIALS

Among others, supply and demand at the secondary waste market is one of the most important factors driving the development of the waste recycling sector. According to the Report of DAMU RG Research Group LLP, nowadays many recycling companies in Kazakhstan encounter a problem of selling raw materials formed after the waste recycling. It is stated in the Report of DAMU RG Research Group LLP that: “…currently various mechanisms of influence – requirements for the mandatory use of recycled materials when releasing new products (in percentage terms) and concessional lending to these enterprises are used in the developed foreign countries”²⁹. Perhaps, the use of these measures could bring the positive results in Kazakhstan.

A SYSTEMIC ISSUE

Currently, the governmental regulation of the waste management issues in Kazakhstan are governed by several ministries such as the Ministry of National Economy, Ministry of Energy, Ministry of Ecology, Geology and Natural Resources, Ministry of Industry and Infrastructural Development, etc. It is stated in the Report of DAMU RG Research Group LLP that: “…each and every activity in the European counties related to the solid domestic waste management is carried out by the Environmental Agencies”²⁹. In many cases, assignment of issues for regulating the waste management system between several ministries that are not particularly related to each other complicates the process of the effective regulation.
 

Trends for Development and Amendment of the Environmental Code

Since the country has started actively developing the issue of waste disposal relatively recently, the Kazakhstani environmental legislation, including those for the waste management issues is under continuous finalization and improvement. Among the most significant recent amendments, it is relevant to distinguish the amendments for introducing the “Waste-to-energy” Principle adopted in the Environmental Code and other legal acts on 9 November 2020 and entered into force on 21 November 2020³¹.

An opportunity of the energy (power) disposal of waste is provided by the modifications in the form of their heat treatment in order to reduce the volume of waste and subsequent energy generation. Only those wastes that are not included in the list of waste not subject to energy disposal will be subject to incineration.

The guaranteed purchase of electrical power generated by the combustion plants by the Accounting and Financial Center Supporting the Renewable Energy Sources established at KEGOC JSC is envisaged as a mechanism to support the direction of energy waste management legislation, by analogy with other countries. It is expected that the Accounting and Financial Center will purchase the amount of energy (power) generated at the plant at prices determined in the course of trading. In this case, prices are adjusted according to index on annual basis based on the consumer prices and exchange rate of KZT. The auction ceiling prices for electrical power generated by the energy disposal of waste, the Rules for their determination and the list of waste not subject to energy disposal must be also be approved by the competent authorities in the near future.

In order to reduce the negative environmental impact of activities of the waste incineration plants, a number of requirements have been established for these plants based on the European standards. These provisions have also been incorporated with adoption of the Environmental Code of 2021, particularly in the Article 324 of the Environmental Code of 2021.

As expected, the adopted amendments and modifications will allow reducing the number of solid domestic waste and landfills in the country, and will have a general positive effect on the environment and economy of Kazakhstan.

New statutes of the new Environmental Code of 2021 are more focused on the environmental pollution, emissions, environmental permits and introduction of the latest technologies by the enterprises. The following major changes are provided in the area of waste management without limitation: delimitation of waste management organizations from other entities in order to establish the special requirements for the first ones, introduction of the principle of the waste hierarchy for the purposes of their separation at the source of generation, increase of the storage and accumulation life of certain types of waste, clarification of the concepts of waste “sorting” and “treatment”, as well as the time of transfer of ownership of waste to the waste management organizations.

The envisaged modifications should have a positive effect on the existing environmental problems in Kazakhstan, which consequently will positively affect the population security and health, the environmental enhancement, and cultural development of an attitude of care towards nature, as well as development of the national economy.

¹The World Bank Group;

² Concept for Transition of the Republic of Kazakhstan to “Green Economy” approved by the Presidential Decree of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 577 dated May 30, 2013;

3The State Program for the Business Support and Development “Business Roadmap-2025” approved by the Governmental Decree of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 968 dated December 24, 2019;

⁴Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 400-VI dated January 02, 2021 “Environmental Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan”;

⁵“KB Strelka”, Global Experience: Six Examples of the Efficient Waste Handling, December 30, 2019;

⁶A.G. Bekturova, “Problems of Improvement of the Environmental Legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan in Terms of the Industrial and Household Waste Management”, 2018;

⁷“Increase of the Waste Recycling Share and Promotion of the Environmental Initiatives – M. Mirzagaliyev reported on the work done”, June 10, 2020;

⁸Association of the Environmental Practitioners. Association of the Environmental Practitioners, “Household Waste Management System in Kazakhstan” July 14, 2020;

⁹Ministry of National Economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Committee on Statistics, Final Waste Disposal, June 01, 2020;

¹⁰Association of the Environmental Practitioners, “Household Waste Management System in Kazakhstan”, 2020;

¹¹Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 212-III dated January 09, 2007 “Environmental Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan”;

¹²Order issued by the Minister of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 229 dated March 20, 2015 “On Approval of the Rules for the Control of the Ownerless Hazardous Waste Recognized by the Court Decision as Received into the Republican Ownership”;

¹³Order issued by the Minister for Environment of the Republic of Kazakhstan  No. 169-p dated  May 31, 2007 “On Approval of the Waste Classifier”;

¹⁴Order issued by the acting Minister of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 695 dated December 04, 2015 “On Approval of the List of Products (Goods) Covered by the Extended Producers (Importers) Responsibility”; 

¹⁵Governmental Decree of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 1137 dated December 30, 2015 “On Determination of Operator of the Extended Producers (Importers) Responsibility”;

¹⁶Order issued by the Minister of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 762 dated December 25, 2015 “On Approval of the Methods for Calculating the Fee for Arrangement of the Waste Collection, Transportation, Recycling,  Neutralization, Use and (or) Disposal”; 

¹⁷Order issued by the acting Minister for Environment of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 244-p dated August 02, 2007 “On Approval of the List of Waste to be Disposed at Landfills of Various Categories”;

¹⁸Sanitary Rules for Design and Maintenance of the Solid Domestic Waste Landfills No. 3.01.016.97 dated April 29, 1997 approved by the Chief State Health Inspector of the Republic of Kazakhstan;

¹⁹Order issued by the Minister of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 404 dated September 01, 2016 “On Approval of the Methods for Calculating the Tariffs for Collection, Removal, Disposal, Recycling and Burial of the Solid Domestic Waste”;

²⁰Order issued by the Minister of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 145 dated November 25, 2014 “On Approval of the Model Rules for the Calculation of Rates for the Generation and Accumulation of Household Waste”;

²¹Order issued by the acting Minister of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 352 dated July 29, 2016 “On Approval of Form of the Waste Inventory Report and Completion Guidelines”;

²²Order issued by the Minister of National Economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 235 dated March 20, 2015 “On Approval of the Model Rules for the Maintenance and Protection of Green Spaces, the Rules for the Improvement of Territories of Cities and Towns, and the Rules for Provision of the Public Service “Issue of the Deforestation Permit”;

²³Information on the waste reduction, recycling and reuse;

²⁴Association of the Environmental Practitioners, “Household Waste Management System in Kazakhstan”, 2020;

²⁵Kazinform, “Recycling of the domestic solid waste has increased in Kazakhstan”, 2019; 

²⁶The Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan of Administrative Offenses No. 235-V dated July 05, 2014;

²⁷E. Nehring, “If the Garbage Sorting Effective in Kazakhstan?”, September 09, 2020;

²⁸Egor Zinger, “Why is the “Garbage Business” not developed in Kazakhstan as in the Western world? Part 1”, May 02, 2019;

²⁹DAMU RG Research Group LLP, Report of the Marketing Research Results “Implementation of the Integrated System of Solid Domestic Waste Management in the Republic of Kazakhstan”, 2018;

³⁰Association of the Environmental Practitioners. Association of the Environmental Practitioners, “Household Waste Management System in Kazakhstan”, July 14, 2020;

³¹Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 373-VI dated November 09, 2020 “On Amendments and Additions to Some Legislative Acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan Concerning the Energy, Transport and National Awards”.

April 22, 2024

ASTANA – The Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources will allocate 200 billion tenge ($448.2 million) to finance the construction and modernization of solid waste processing plants, said Vice Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources Zhomart Aliyev during an April 18 hybrid-format international conference focused on problems and prospects of the recycling industry in Kazakhstan, reported the press service of the country’s Association of Secondary Raw Material Recyclers.

According to Aliyev, 94 projects have already been selected, 37 of which are new factories.

Aliyev named waste sorting and the workload of domestic processing plants with low-quality raw materials as the main problem for high-quality waste processing in Kazakhstan.

Last year, Kazakhstan achieved a 24% share of sorting and processing solid household waste. According to the green economy transition concept, the share of recycling should reach 40% by 2030.

Aliyev emphasized the ministry’s commitment to increasing the share of waste recycling and obtaining the largest possible amount of useful fractions. Through satellite images, 5,000 spontaneous landfills were identified in Kazakhstan in 2023, and 80% had been successfully eliminated by year-end.

He added that the new plants will process waste paper, glass, plastic, metals, and electrical appliances.

Of the 100,000 tons of plastic generated at landfills in Kazakhstan, only about 3,500 tons are recycled. Association Chairman Batyrbek Aubakirov noted that a major challenge faced by specialized companies is the need for more raw materials for solid household waste processing.

He said Kazakh landfills find it more profitable to transport waste to neighboring countries for processing rather than using domestic processing plants.

According to Aubakirov, processors’ problems include a lack of stable raw material sources, unequal trade terms with third countries, and dumping raw materials and finished products caused by different customs rates and exchange rate fluctuations.

“As a result, these factors reduce the competitiveness of Kazakh processors, loss of market share, and underutilization of production capacities,” he stressed.

https://astanatimes.com/2024/04/kazakhstan-commits-448-2-million-to-boost-recycling-infrastructure

July 25, 2024

ASTANA — The Kazakh Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources and Zhasyl Damu company have launched the first project to construct a waste recycling plant and techno-eco park, the ministry’s press service reported on July 24.

This project includes sorting 120,000 tons of waste annually, sorting bulky waste at a rate of 120,000 tons per year, and processing organic waste at a rate of 80,000 tons per year. It is expected to create 70 new jobs. 

The government has developed a pool of 94 investment projects in waste management, funded by utilization payments. All projects have been coordinated with stakeholders, including akimats (city administrations) and the business community. These projects aim to increase municipal waste recycling from the current 1 million tons to 2.2 million tons per year.

https://astanatimes.com/2024/07/kazakhstan-kicks-off-construction-of-techno-park-for-waste-recycling

Kazakhstan wants renewable energy (RE) to reach 50% of its energy mix by 2050, with intermediate targets of 3% (or new 2,000 MW investment) by 2020 and 10% by 2030. Mr. Kanat Bozumbayev, Minister of Energy of Kazakhstan, pointed out yesterday that one of the main instruments to attract the required investments will be the RE Auctions Mechanism to be launched in May 2018.

The minister was speaking at the opening of the Renewable Energy Policy Hard Talk, a high-level policy dialogue on Renewable Energy Investment organized by the Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan with the support of UNECE, the European Commission and USAID (Astana, 26-27 April 2018). The event gathered a broad range of stakeholders, including policy-makers, public administrations, private developers and investors, financial institutions, donors, experts and civil society representatives to discuss the opportunities and challenges of renewable energy investment in Kazakhstan.

Participants agreed on the multiple benefits of renewable energy in terms of energy security, economic development and protection of the environment. They also identified several barriers that are still faced by investors as well as best practice policies and tools to overcome them.

To further foster the deployment of RE in Kazakhstan, a set of priority actions have been proposed as outcome of this two-day Hard Talk.

As follow-up, Kazakhstan may receive support to reach their renewable energy objectives by the European Commission which can mobilise upon request specific technical assistance under the EU Technical Assistance Facility for Sustainable Energy.

Note to editors

In support to the achievement of the energy-related Sustainable Development Goals, notably SDG7 and based on key findings from the REN21 UNECE Renewable Energy Status Report 2017, Hard Talks bring together major players in the energy field from public and private sector to discuss key issues, identify priorities and propose concrete recommendations for policy changes needed to overcome policy, legal, regulatory, technical barriers and take advantage of untapped renewable energy potential. This was the fourth of a series of Renewable Energy Hard Talks promoted by UNECE (Georgia and Ukraine in 2016 and in Azerbaijan in 2017).More information is available at:https://www.unece.org/energywelcome/areas-of-work/renewable-energy/unece-hard-talks.html

Average Kazakhstani produces about 300 kilograms of various waste products annually. The main environmental damage is caused by decomposing food residues that emit flammable methane, which is more dangerous than carbon dioxide. Plus, hydrogen sulfide and other gases that are harmful to humans, which increase the greenhouse effect.

The annual volume of waste is equal to 5-6 million tons in Kazakhstan. Over 8 months of 2018, about 3.2 million tons of SHW were gathered, of which about 330.0 thousand tons were recycled and processed, which amounted to 10.5 per cent. The remaining amount (about 90 per cent) is placed on polygons and waste deposits.

The number of polygons grow and greedily absorb new territories. Nowadays there are about 4 thousand of them in the country. The terrible situation with these polygons and waste deposits has become possible due to the lack of household waste sorting points and waste recycling plants.

There is a problem? There is a solution!

In execution of Kazakh President N. Nazarbayev’s instructions to take measures for timely disposal of solid household waste (SHW) in order to reduce environmental pollution, the Ministry of Energy together with the Governor’s Offices developed a project “A set of measures for modern SHW recycling and processing involving small and medium-sized businesses”.

This set of measures includes:

– development of Waste Management Programs that determine the overall development strategy for the management of solid waste in the regions;

– revision of existing tariffs taking into account all operations – collection, removal, recycling, processing and disposal of solid waste;

– introduction of a separate collection, installation of sorting points, which will make it possible to get better recyclable materials, develop the recyclable market and reduce the amount of waste placed at landfills, increase the service life of landfills, respectively, reduce the budget expenditures on the construction of new landfills;

– development of infrastructure for handling solid waste, including for the processing of organic waste to produce biogas or compost;

– conducting extensive outreach activities with the population on SHW to increase the environmental awareness of the population and involve them in the process of separate collection of SHW;

– establishing cooperation and attracting investments.

In addition to the measures, the Ministry of Energy developed the Concept on the transition of Kazakhstan to the “green” economy.

“According to the Concept, by 2030 the share of recycling should be increased to 40 per cent, and by 2050 – 50 per cent”, Energy Minister Kanat Bozumbayev stated, speaking about the Concept during the Government sitting.

The regulatory legal framework has been also created and it is improved. Thus, the Environmental Code on Waste Management was amended, as well as obligations of manufacturers, that is, importers were extended. The Minister of Energy noted that a ban on the dumping of certain types of waste at landfills has been imposed. In particular, since 2016, it is prohibited to dispose mercury-containing lamps and devices, metal scrap, waste oils and liquids, batteries, electronic waste at landfills. From January 1, 2019, a ban on the disposal of plastic, waste paper, cardboard and glass will come into force. From January 1, 2021, a ban on the burial of construction and food waste will come into force.

The Environmental Code and the Law “On Local State Governance and Self-Government in the Republic of Kazakhstan” entrusted local executive bodies with the task of organizing a separate collection at the source of their formation, disposal of solid waste.

The Law “On Government Procurement” provides a priority on goods produced from recycled materials in the territory of Kazakhstan during public procurement.

An Action plan has been developed for the formation and improvement of the environmental culture of the population in terms of respect for the environment and safe waste management.

Therefore, to achieve the target indicator defined in the Concept, as well as the set of measures in the regions, separate collection, sorting and recycling of solid waste is gradually introduced.

Sort, hand over and get money!

Nowadays the separate collection has been introduced in 41 cities, solid waste is sorted in 19 cities and large settlements with obtaining high-quality secondary raw materials for sale and processing. More than 130 enterprises sorting and processing waste, producing more than 20 types of products, function in the country. The number of enterprises is growing every year. Also foreign companies are ready to invest into this sphere. So, Spanish businessmen are ready to invest into Kazakhstan in order to build waste recycling plants in some regions of the country.

In September this year, Astana has presented the first GreenStation recycling facility. This facility will allow solving several problems at once: to stimulate residents and guests of the capital to collect separate garbage at the expense of remuneration, to educate their ecological culture, and also to form a careful attitude to the environment.

Citizens of Astana can bring 11 types of raw materials to the “green station”: waste paper, polyethylene, stretch film, PET bottles, glass bottles, household equipment bottles, aluminum cans and so on. The price for one kilogram of garbage varies from 5 to 100 tenge. The most expensive recycled materials are aluminum cans, transparent and colored polyethylene is a bit cheaper at a cost of 70 tenge per kilogram. The company takes glass container by the piece, the price of one bottle is three tenge.

General director of AstanaCleanTime, Timur Ismagulov, after the presentation of the project, said that its implementation required 5.5 million tenge.

He assured that the daily collection point for separate waste will be about 500 kilograms of waste, which is 15,000 kilograms per month. All collected waste will be sent to waste recycling plants.

On July 12, 2018 Timur Ismagulov presented one of the eco-points, where citizens are paid for garbage collection.

For reference: Terms of waste paper breakdown vary. So, a bus ticket will completely melt into the ground within a month. Regular waste paper decomposes in 2-3 years, waxed paper – as much as 5 years. By the way, it is strictly forbidden to burn paper with food products, since as a result, dioxides can be formed. Glass is a champion for the time of decomposition, which is about 1 million years. Speaking about plastic, it should be about 450 years before plastic begins to decompose. After that, another 50-80 years will pass until it is completely decomposed. At the current rate of production of this material, our planet will be completely covered with plastic before the process of its decomposition begins. Stretch film is characterized by a long period of time decomposition – up to 300 years. PET bottle is a plastic container for containing, protecting and transporting liquids. It takes from 70 to 450 years for plastic to disappear. An aluminum can of beer decays in the soil on average over 80 years. The decomposition time of polyethylene products depends on the initial density and structure. For example, the usual thin plastic bags, in which sellers like to wrap everything so much, decompose for 100-200 years.A

Source: www.strategy2050.kz https://strategy2050.kz/en/news/how_does_kazakhstan_solve_problem_of_waste_recycling__52089/

Kazakhstan’s track record in energy is famously linked to fossil fuels. The discovery of massive reserves of oil and gas in fields such as Tengiz and Kashagan in the late 1990s and early 2000s set the stage for robust economic development in Kazakhstan after the breakup of the Soviet Union. The country is also home to abundant quantities of anthracite and bituminous coal. Indeed, some 75 percent of Kazakh electricity and heating is generated by coal plants located in close proximity to coal mines in northeast Kazakhstan.

Given these factors, it may come as news to some that Kazakhstan is also the leading proponent of renewable energy in Central Asia. The country has been home to conventional renewable energy sources (RES), primarily large hydro and geothermal projects, since the Soviet era. But in the late 2000s it began to pursue more liberal policies designed to make use of the country’s fortuitous topological conditions for the development of wind, small hydro, and solar projects.

The first meaningful step was taken in 2009 when the Kazakh government adopted a law to support the development of renewable energy projects. This first iteration was vague and lacked a strong regulatory component. Since then, however, existing legislation has been amended. Competitive feed-in-tariffs were introduced in 2013 and subsequently refined, and a Green Economy law was enacted in 2015. The Kazakh government has also set ambitious decarbonization and energy efficiency goals: it intends to make RES 50 percent of its power generation mix by 2050 and to increase energy efficiency in heavy industry, the largest source of CO2 emissions in Kazakhstan, by 3 percent annually.

Along the way, the Kazakh government has worked closely with a number of development finance institutions (DFI) such as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to bring its policies in line with international standards and reduce the incidence of corruption in key sectors. This commitment to renewable energy has been welcomed by potential investors in the sector as a rational means of diversifying its energy mix and spurring economic growth. Even so, significant questions related to aging and insufficient infrastructure, a dynamic regulatory outlook, and corruption and legal risks remain. These issues must be adequately addressed if renewable energy in Kazakhstan is to take off.

Kazakh Power Infrastructure: A Brief History 

The methodology and priorities of the Soviet Union are manifest in the Kazakh power system. The three power networks that constitute the grid are tied in northern Kazakhstan to the Russian power grid and in southern Kazakhstan to the United Energy System of Central Asia, a Soviet-era regional power network which promoted intraregional electricity trading as a means of offsetting seasonal electricity deficits throughout Central Asia.

However, the fall of the Soviet Union precipitated the end of this model and gave rise to one based on increased energy self-sufficiency throughout the region. Consequently, the regional electricity market has all but disappeared, as countries in Central Asia have instead chosen to prioritize new generation capacity. In Kazakhstan officials invested heavily in new thermoelectric power infrastructure as a means of meeting increased demand and promoting energy security, but did little to modernize existing generation or transmission and distribution (T&D) infrastructure. For instance, the construction of north-south transmission lines linking the country’s largest city, Almaty, to generation sources in northern Kazakhstan went some way in reducing the country’s dependence on its neighbors in the late 1990s and mid-2000s. But it failed to address entrenched efficiency issues which have only worsened in the intervening years as these lines have aged in step with the infrastructure they connect.

The consequences today are a centralized and inflexible system which is overly reliant on inefficient thermoelectric plants and T&D infrastructure that routinely registers efficiency losses of between 15 and 33 percent. Total available installed capacity falls below national energy consumption and although the country imports electricity from Russia, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan to make up for deficits, brown outs (planned blackouts) are not infrequent in Almaty or Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan.

An Evolving Electricity Market

Additional installed capacity from RES is seen as a potential panacea for electricity shortages in Kazakhstan. However, their success will depend on the modernization and expansion of T&D infrastructure as well as the development of new installed capacity. As the Kazakh government cannot meet the steep capital requirements implicit in such an effort, one might expect that institutional investors would be eager to assume a more prominent role. The reality is that grid modernization is a capital-intensive affair that has historically been an unprofitable one in Kazakhstan.

The root cause for this is political in nature. Both the tariffs imposed on industrial energy consumers and the taxes paid by residential consumers have intentionally been kept at below-cost return levels by the Kazakh government, which has subsidized the difference. While some of this can be explained by the fact that Kazakhstan’s aging generation fleet has long relied on abundant domestic quantities of cheap coal, the crux of the matter is that dramatic increases in electricity prices entailed by new capacity from RES could lead to significant unrest in a country where mean monthly wages fall below $600.

Maintaining artificially low electricity prices has come at a cost. While the country has managed to keep political unrest in check, it has driven away most investment in its power sector and led to the electricity shortages described above. There is some indication, however, that the government is beginning to take a shift to a competitive power sector seriously. In 2013, for instance, the Kazakh government introduced fixed, 15-year feed-in-tariffs (essentially, a policy mechanism which guarantees the purchase of electricity from RES at a competitive rate) for electricity generated from wind, solar, and small hydro plants as a means of guaranteeing returns to investors. These and other policies adopted between 2013 and 2015 were developed in conjunction with the EBRD to address lingering investor concerns such as mandatory connection to T&D infrastructure and the priority transmission of electricity generated from RES.

Even so, their ability to promote significant investment in the Kazakh power system is unproven at best. Most of the largest wind and solar projects developed in Kazakhstan, such as the Yereymentau wind farm in north-central Kazakhstan and the Burnoye solar power plant in southern Kazakhstan, have been financed by Kazakh state companies, the EBRD, and/or other DFIs. Renewable energy projects have failed to catalyze significant investment from institutional investors, which prioritize returns above all and have no great interest in contributing to piecemeal development of Kazakhstan’s renewables sector.

Part of this relates to the recent instability of the Kazakh tenge. The country’s shift to a floating currency in 2016 led to sharp decreases in the value of fixed tariffs, limiting potential return on investment and jeopardizing future development of RES. New tariffs, which appear to take currency risk more seriously, were introduced by the Kazakh government in April 2017 but it is still too early to gauge their effectiveness.

Operational Costs

Kazakhstan’s topography is suitable for the development of RES. More than 50 percent of the country, particularly in the country’s northern regions, has average wind speeds of between four and six meters per second, making them suitable for utility-scale wind farm development, whereas southern Kazakhstan receives consistently high levels of solar irradiation. This is meaningful, as Almaty is located in the country’s extreme south and far from the majority of Kazakhstan’s existing power generation fleet. Developing new capacity from RES in both the north and south could limit the need to transmit electricity over large distances, reduce efficiency losses and eliminate mandatory electricity imports from other states in Central Asia.

As in other countries with RES capacity, however, the locations best suited to development are in rural areas far from existing T&D infrastructure. The costs of developing new installed capacity from RES will therefore be high, and project developers will have to negotiate infrastructure development and grid connection agreements with Kazakh grid operator KEGOC, power utility Alatau Zharyk, and other federal and regional bodies. The high costs posed by development, particularly that of high-voltage grid connection, have already led to the postponement or cancellation of several otherwise promising wind energy projects in north and northwest Kazakhstan. And even when they have not, obtaining a grid connection can be a lengthy and byzantine process which, despite some improvement, still ranks poorly compared to other emerging and frontier markets with significant renewables potential.

The costs of import and transportation of components used to construct RES projects will also be higher than in other countries. This is because Kazakhstan currently lacks an indigenous manufacturing sector suited to developing specialized components used in wind turbines and has only a limited ability to develop wafers or other components used in solar panels. Developers will therefore have to assume the additional transportation and logistical costs which come with importing these components instead of producing them in-country. This puts Kazakhstan at a disadvantage vis-à-vis other potentially more attractive investment destinations like China, Uruguay, Kenya, and Zambia, which in addition to setting lofty RES development goals, have also established comparatively viable local supply chains.

Country Risks 

The realization of Kazakhstan’s renewable energy potential will not be possible if corruption concerns are not adequately addressed. Poor governance, a lack of transparency, and inconsistent enforcement of legislation have long acted as deterrents to investment in the Kazakh economy, and will impact investments in RES if left unaddressed. As recently as 2016, these concerns were cited as the number one impediment to large-scale investment in Kazakhstan. The feeble amount of investment from firms in Europe and the United States bears this out. Although the countries have invested more than $30 billion in the Kazakh economy over the last 12 years, this amount is only a fraction of Kazakhstan’s investment potential.

One of the primary reasons for this is Kazakhstan’s legal framework. While robust in comparison to many other former Soviet countries, existing legislation falls short of international standards. The country’s overall investment climate is governed by a series of six laws that were implemented between 2003 and 2011, while additional power sector-specific legislation was enacted in 2004 and amended in 2009 to attract investment into the sector through a more competitive tariff system.

The country’s utilities laws set out the two primary means — government concession or direct agreement with the Kazakh Ministry of Investment and Development — by which international investors or project developers may participate in the Kazakh power sector, as well as how a company may access any existing incentives made available by the Kazakh government. The country’s general investment framework establishes statutory limits on the Kazakh government’s ability to appropriate or interfere in the operations of international companies, and sets out transparency norms for government contracting.

Between 2014 and 2015, the government enacted four additional pieces of anti-corruption legislation, which define bribery and other corruption as criminal offenses and establish standards of conduct for government officials. These measures were enacted as part of a broader governance initiative called the 100 Concrete Steps, which was designed in part to reduce the incidence of corruption and streamline government contracting processes.

The existence of this program notwithstanding, Kazakhstan ranked 131st in Transparency International’s 2016 corruption perceptions index. Irregular and inconsistent implementation of the country’s laws and regulatory norms is still widespread. Enforcement of legislation that governs energy auctions, local content requirements, and power concessions are viewed as arbitrary and non-transparent measures that tend to favor those close to the Kazakh government. The EBRD’s most recent assessment of laws that govern public-private-partnerships (PPPs) found them to be lacking in several key respects and only moderately effective.

Adding to this are tactics such as arbitrary fines and unannounced audits meant to pressure foreign companies into capitulating during a dispute or paying bribes to government officials. Recourse to international arbitration is noticeably absent from most Kazakh legislation and the judicial branch is neither independent nor particularly reliable.

Anti-corruption concerns have not, in fairness, been completely disregarded by officials in Astana. The country’s 100 Concrete Steps initiative is an example of its commitment to reducing the incidence of corruption in the country, and organizations such as the World Bank, the World Economic Forum, and the Heritage Foundation have recognized the Kazakh government’s efforts to reduce bureaucracy, streamline licensing procedures, and introduce legislation that effectively combats corruption. Kazakhstan improved in seven of the 10 categories that make up the World Bank’s most recent Doing Business index, and it ranked above Turkey, Costa Rica, and Colombia in the World Economic Forum’s 2017 Global Competitiveness index.

The Path Ahead 

Kazakhstan’s promotion of RES is an ambitious move and one that could redound to a significant increase in foreign direct investment and the diversification of the country’s power generation mix. It has introduced legislation promoting RES as a generation source and worked with development finance institutions like the EBRD and the ADB to enact policy mechanisms and anti-corruption legislation to assuage investor concerns and bring its legal framework into line with international standards.

The success of the sector is not guaranteed, however, and it will almost certainly face obstacles that threaten to derail its development. Many of these are legacy issues related to the country’s Soviet-past and post-independency emphasis on energy self-sufficiency, and will therefore be difficult to address. Even so, the country has charted a potentially auspicious path forward. It must persist down this path if the development of renewables in Kazakhstan is to be a success. Source: www.thediplomat.com

ASTANA – Kazakhstan’s share of municipal solid waste (MSW) recycling increased to 11.5 percent last year, compared to 9 percent in 2017. The country produced 4.3 million tonnes of MSW by the end of 2018, approximately 100,000 fewer tonnes than in 2017.

The amount of recycled waste is expected to continue increasing with the law banning dumping plastics, paper, cardboard and glass wastes into landfills that came into force Jan. 1. Transitioning to a greener lifestyle should also be facilitated with the ban on construction and food waste beginning in 2021.

The government has prohibited disposing mercury-containing lamps and devices, scrap metal, waste oils and liquids, batteries and electronic waste in landfills since 2016.

In addition to the laws, regional akimats (administrations) have started to support recycling operations such as factories and companies. The Atyrau akimat is involved in launching a factory within the city limits with a capacity of 100 tonnes of garbage per day for sorting solid household waste, its press service reported Jan 14. Investors have allocated funds to purchase the necessary equipment and the plant, which will employ approximately 70, should start activity in the spring. 

Since the 2016 ban, regional akimats have purchased 2,321 containers to collect mercury lamps and batteries, 8,905 for separate MSW collection and 289 for electrical and electronic equipment; acquired 30 garbage trucks and opened 104 stations for receiving recyclables. A quarter of the country’s 204 cities have started sorting and collecting recyclable material. 

In addition, the government introduced the extended manufacturers’ (importers’) obligations principle for waste collection and disposal in 2016. The ROP operator, a special body which controls fulfilling the obligations and adopting the principle, has seemed to enhance the MSW recycling infrastructure. The ROP operator reimburses enterprises for the cost of collecting, transporting and processing recycled materials. In the last three years, more than 50 enterprises received compensation and 100,553 tonnes of auto components were collected and processed. It also has been recycling old cars since November 2016, receiving 83,268 decommissioned vehicles.

The Ministry of Energy and Kazakhstan Gharysh Sapary monitor waste disposal sites with satellites to prevent spontaneous dumping in the areas.

The national policy regarding waste management and transitioning the country to a green economy plans to increase the recycling share to at least 40 percent by 2030 and 50 percent by 2050. BY: AIDANA YERGALIYEVA  (www.astanatimes.com)