Business of Kazakhstan supports Green initiatives
Every day, the country's population consumes about 15 million plastic bags that end up in landfills.
According to the Ministry of Ecology, Geology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Kazakhstan, 11.2% of the total volume of solid waste in landfills is made up of polymers, including polyethylene bags. The Ministry of Ecology has proposed to reduce the consumption of polyethylene bags.
The Ministry, Atameken NCE RK and the Association of Environmental Associations of Kazakhstan signed the memorandum on the phased reduction of the use of polyethylene bags. The parties will develop and implement the relevant measures under the memorandum.
"We have studied the world experience and, we will be able to reduce the level of plastic waste by 30%. I would like to emphasize that this project is voluntary; we will meet with the retail chains and raise the awareness of the environmental damage from polyethylene bags," the Minister of Ecology, Geology and Natural Resources Magzum Mirzagaliyev said.
Today, most of the polyethylene packaging is imported from China. Local producers are not yet able to compete with their neighbors' pricing policies. However, about 9 companies in Kazakhstan manufacture polyethylene bags.
According to Ablay Myrzakhmetov, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Atameken NCE RK, the state needs to maintain operating plants and invest in enterprises to systematically abandon polyethylene.
"The business community is aware of its social responsibility: it pays taxes, creates jobs and raises environmental and health issues. Entrepreneurs understand the importance of this issue, but we need to approach the problem comprehensively. We see that in some supermarkets the packages are already paid, some chains are switching to eco-packages. But we must not leave local producers without a market. The main direction of work on this memorandum for us is to work out the issue of stimulating the production of biodegradable and alternative types of packaging," Ablay Myrzakhmetov said.
Along with toughening measures, the new environmental code should encourage business to develop a green economy, he said. The domestic company, JV Uly Dala LLP, manufactures starch packets. According to social entrepreneur Miras Abbasov, such packages decompose in the conditions of the landfill within three months. However, the cost of such a package is 30 tenge, which is much more expensive than the usual plastic bag that costs 5 tenge.
"Our packages are made up of vegetable sugars and completely decompose. So far, our enterprise is loaded at 10% and produces 500,000 packages per month. Due to the high cost, we mostly export products to Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia. Unfortunately, today in Kazakhstan only a few networks use packages without oxo-degradable plastic," the entrepreneur said.
The Atameken will work out mechanisms to support environmentally friendly packaging for the gradual replacement of polyethylene.
Remind that, the Atameken has launched the Zhasyl kasip initiative to support the ecological and resource-saving projects of the companies. Under this initiative, the National Chamber will share about the enterprises successfully realizing the principles of green economy and support such start-ups.
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