KYIV. Nov 16 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The European Union is helping the Cabinet of Ministers to determine the value chains of secondary (processed) products that could be in demand in Ukraine, Chloe Allio, Head of Section Operations - Economic Cooperation, Energy, Infrastructure and Environment at the EU Delegation to Ukraine, has said.

"We are working with the government and offering assistance to identify those production chains [of secondary products] that are worth developing in Ukraine from the point of view of the circular economy [availability of demand for them]. This can lead to the development of certain action plans with possible sectoral legislation," she said during a roundtable talk of the Green Deal project, held with the support of the EU Delegation to Ukraine in the framework of the communication campaign Boosting Green Potential Together.

According to her, an important aspect of the development of the circular economy in Ukraine is interaction with business and other stakeholders at the sectoral level.

At the same time, the heads of specialized associations in the field of waste management noted the importance of having a legislative framework to unblock the potential of the circular economy.

"The investor will not be the case, there is no problem. The investor expects clear guarantees from the state, the so-called rules of the game. We expect them from the framework bill [No. 2207-1-d on waste management]. Ukraine must show its will and show that, yes, we want to see a resource in waste," Liudmyla Tsyhanok, President of the Professional Association of Ecologists of Ukraine, said.

Head of the Waste Management Association Nikol Danylova highlighted the quantitative indicators of the waste problem. Now in Ukraine, according to official statistics, there are about 33,000 landfills, of which only more than 6,000 are legal, but no one has full information because of the problem of waste accounting, she said.

"Only 5% of this waste is sorted and sent further for processing as recyclable materials," Danylova said.

At the same time, according to her, it is at this stage that the big paradox of the "Ukrainian garbage collapse" arises, since Ukraine continues to import recyclable materials to fill the capacities of processing enterprises.

Danylova said that in 2021 alone, Ukraine imported waste paper, cullet and plastic waste worth $70 million.

In addition, Serhiy Savchuk, Executive Director of Clear Energy Group, spoke about the danger of methane emissions from landfills and shared the results of the company's activities in this area.

In particular, he noted that the company installed equipment for degassing landfills in 13 large cities of Ukraine, which allows preventing the release of harmful methane emissions into the atmosphere and subsequently using the resulting gas for sale on market conditions.

"Today, methane that we receive at landfills is used to generate electricity, and we are successfully selling it to Guaranteed Buyer," Savchuk said.