Recycling Compliance — Hierarchy, Principles and Liability
Recycling in Georgia is a part of the whole system established by the Waste Management Code and cannot be understood in isolation, because the Code builds waste management policy on a hierarchy: prevention; preparing for reuse; recycling; other types of recovery, including energy recovery; and disposal. Recycling is the third step of this ladder — nobody resorts to it out of order: first the generation of waste must be reduced, then the product prepared for reuse, and only then does recycling follow.
In applying the hierarchy the Code requires three factors to be taken into account: the environmental benefit; technical feasibility using the corresponding best available techniques; and economic viability. A decision on recycling must therefore be substantiated ecologically as well as technically and economically — a framework that protects both the environment and the business from symbolic gestures dressed as compliance.
The Principles of Waste Management
The Code regulates waste management with a precondition of safety: management must be carried out without creating a threat to the environment and human health — in such a way that no threat is created to water, air, soil, flora and fauna; no damage is caused by noise and odour; and no negative impact is exercised on protected areas and cultural heritage.
Four principles are particularly important for practice: the precautionary principle — measures must be taken to prevent the threat caused by waste even where no scientifically confirmed data exist; polluter pays — the waste generator or holder is obliged to bear the costs connected with management; the proximity principle — waste must be processed at the nearest processing facility, taking into account environmental and economic efficiency; and the self sufficiency principle — an integrated and adequate network of municipal waste disposal and recovery facilities must be established and function. Together these principles define where and how recycling obligations are to be discharged.
Extended Producer Responsibility
The central instrument of recycling compliance is the extended producer responsibility. The direct producer of a product that subsequently becomes specific waste, and the placer of that product on the market, must take care to give the product a form which ensures the reduction of negative environmental impact and the reduction of waste generation in the production process and subsequent use; the Code supplements this requirement with obligations concerning the further management of waste generated from the product.
The extended producer responsibility organization is a non commercial legal entity created individually by a producer or collectively by producers and responsible for the fulfilment of this obligation. The Code also defines the recycling advance payment — a proportional payment which a member of the organization pays for the management of waste generated from products placed on the market. Recycling here is thus not a wish but a funded obligation, with its own institutional and financial machinery.
Fines for Violating Extended Responsibility
The Code establishes a full ladder of sanctions in this field. The placing on the market by a distributor of a product whose producer is not registered in the electronic registry of extended producer responsibility or is not a member of an organization entails a fine of 2000 GEL; the same fine applies to a distributor's violation of the requirements established by the relevant technical regulations and to non fulfilment of reporting requirements.
A producer carrying out activity without joining a collectively created organization or without creating one individually entails a fine of 5000 GEL; operating without registration in the electronic registry likewise entails 5000 GEL. An organization's non fulfilment of the accounting and reporting requirements entails 5000 GEL; violation of the registration rules — 7000 GEL; non fulfilment of the measures defined by the action plan — 7000 GEL; operating without authorization — 10 000 GEL; the absence of an agreed action plan within the statutory period — 10 000 GEL; and failure to achieve the annual target indicators for the collection, recovery and recycling of waste established by the technical regulations — 20 000 GEL.
How to Prepare for Compliance
First, determine whether your product falls into a category that becomes specific waste: if it does, the extended responsibility regime applies to you. Second, choose the form — joining an organization or creating an individual one — and register in the electronic registry. Third, keep accounting and reporting to the established requirements, because even the absence of precise information is fineable.
Fourth, monitor the implementation of the action plan: failure to achieve the target indicators is the source of the highest fine, 20 000 GEL. Recycling compliance is thus to be understood as follows: the hierarchy gives you direction, the principles the standard, extended responsibility the mechanism, and the fines the motivation to do everything on time.
Frequently Asked Questions
Below are the most frequent questions about recycling compliance.
What is the waste-management hierarchy?
Prevention, preparation for reuse, recycling, other recovery — including energy recovery — and disposal; in defining specific obligations, ecological benefit, technical feasibility and economic proportionality are taken into account.
Who pays the costs of waste management?
Under the "polluter pays" principle — the waste generator or the waste holder.
What risks must waste management not create?
Risks to water, air, soil, flora and fauna; nor damage through noise and odour, or negative impact on protected territories and cultural heritage.
What does the producer’s extended obligation require?
The immediate producer of a product and its placer on the market must ensure a product form that reduces negative environmental impact and waste generation both in production and in subsequent use.
How We Help on Legal.ge
The lawyers of Legal.ge will help you assess extended-obligation compliance: which requirements concern your products, what the risks are and how to prepare the documentation. Contact us before sanctions arrive.