On 9 January, Supreme Decree No. 001-2022-MINAM was approved. The decree approves relevant amendments to the Regulation of Legislative Decree No. 1278, Legislative Decree that approves the Law of Integral Management of Solid Waste, approved by Supreme Decree No. 014-2017-MINAM ("RRSS Regulation") and the Regulation of Law N° 29419, a law that regulates the activity of waste pickers approved by Supreme Decree N° 005-2010-MINAM ("Recyclers Regulations Act").
The main modifications to the RRSS Regulation are the following:
- Holders of productive, extractive or service activities that generate waste material1 are obliged to communicate information to the relevant competent sectoral authority (and the control authority) the name of the discard material, its characteristics, the approximate amount of discard material generated, as well as the timing of this generation. Such communication must be in the form of an affidavit.
- Likewise, it is established that these holders must report the Declaration of Discard Material Management annually through the Management of Municipal and Non- Municipal Solid Waste Information System - SIGERSOL during the first 15 working days of April of each year.
- Solid waste operating companies (EO-RS) must submit the Operator Report on solid waste management, with monthly data, during the first 15 business days of each quarter. Likewise, those EO-RS that have solid waste infrastructures must report the Annual Declaration on Minimization and Management of Non-Municipal Solid Waste on solid waste management corresponding to the previous year and the Hazardous Solid Waste Manifest, as appropriate.
- Differentiated rules are established regarding the presentation of environmental management instruments for solid waste infrastructure investment projects, depending on the category to which they correspond (i.e., EIAd, EIAsd or DIA). Holders of solid waste infrastructure investment projects that are not classified in advance must submit a Preliminary Environmental Assessment to the competent authority.
- Holders of solid waste infrastructures not included in the SEIA framework must submit the Environmental Technical Sheet to the competent environmental authority prior to its implementation, in accordance with the provisions of the Ministry of the Environment (MINAM), by ministerial resolution.
- The presentation of the Annual Declaration on Minimization and Management of Non-Municipal Solid Waste and of the Solid Waste Management Manifests is an exclusive obligation of the project owner, who is solely responsible for its report.
- The import authorization procedure for solid waste must be carried out through the Single Window for Foreign Trade (VUCE), which will generate a numbering of the Single Application for Foreign Trade (SUCE); subsequently, the required documents must be submitted to MINAM.
- The procedure for registration in the Authoritative Register is carried out through the VUCE. In the case of entries in the register only for the handling of nonhazardous solid waste, the procedure is subject to the automatic approval regime, with subsequent inspection. In these cases, the proof of registration will be issued within five working days. On the contrary, in the case of hazardous solid waste, the procedure is subject to the pre-assessment procedure with negative silence. When the same company applies for registration for the simultaneous handling of both types of solid waste, the rules of negative administrative silence apply.
- In case of changes to the solid waste infrastructure of the EO-RS, it will be mandatory to process a new registration in the Authoritative Register. However, a data modification procedure must be carried out to change the location of the operations plant.
- The cessation of the EO-RS activities be formally communicated to MINAM and to the environmental control entity for supervision, control and sanction in the matter of solid waste, which will be automatically approved, proceeding to leave the registration in the Authoritative Register without effect.
- In case of transfers, assignments or corporate reorganizations, the acquirer of the solid waste infrastructure is obliged to comply with the environmental obligations contained in the environmental management instruments and must notify the competent environmental authority or the environmental control authority within a maximum period of 15 working days.
- New offenses are added to the definition included in the RRSS Regulation, such as (i) not communicating, prior to its execution, the use of scrap material from productive activities, mining and services; (ii) failure to file Reports of Operators of Solid Waste according to the established procedures and timing; and (iii) not having a sanitary engineer or other qualified professional in charge of the technical management of the operations.
In the case of the Recyclers Regulations Act, the requirements for the formalization of recyclers are modified, as well as for the registration in the Municipal Register of Recycling Organizations.
We trust that this information is relevant to you and your company. If you need to delve into the subject, please do not hesitate to contact us.
