Ensuring environmental safety through the development of waste recycling in modern Russia: development, difficulties, solutions at the regional level

Vakarev Aleksander Alekseevich ORCID: 0000-0002-2151-3142 Doctor of Economics Professor, Department of Applied Economics and Management, Volga Institute of Economics, Pedagogy and Law 404111, Russia, Volgogradskaya oblast', g. Volzhskii, ul. Sovetskaya, 6 management@viepp.ru Other publications by this author

Vinogradov Valerii Valerievich ORCID: 0000-0001-8627-8641 PhD in Law Associate Professor, Department of Theory and History of State and Law, Municipal Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education Volga Institute of Economics, Pedagogy and Law 400017, Russia, Volgogradskaya oblast', g. Volzhskii, ul. Sovetskaya, 6 12000102@mail.ru

Introduction

The specificity of the modern socio-economic development of the Russian economy consists in the fact that at present several very important conditions have simultaneously converged, which necessitate the search for extraordinary ways of development for it, such as had not been practically applied in the country before. And not some more or less similar ways for all its regions, but those that will be specific for each of its regions, suitable only for them, most fully adapted to local conditions and opportunities.

Thus, in relation to this article, it is advisable to define its methodology very clearly in order to establish the purpose of this article, the composition of tasks that will achieve its goals, the information base and the nature of conclusions and proposals that will allow this article to have scientific and applied significance.

So, as the purpose of this scientific article, it is necessary to indicate the study of environmental safety issues based on the organization of waste processing industries in modern regions of Russia, as enterprises providing a comprehensive solution to two organic tasks characteristic of the implementation of the concept of sustainable development of the modern regional economy: the growth of regional product while reducing industrial and domestic pollution of the natural environment at the level of the regional economy and/or higher-level economic entities.

The following issues are supposed to be considered as tasks to achieve such a goal:

- consider the international imperatives of creating mechanisms and industries that meet the concept of sustainable development;

- to investigate the current level of development of waste processing industries in the advanced countries of the world community;

- to study the problems of creating waste processing plants in the regions of Russia;

- to develop proposals for the creation of waste processing plants in modern Russian regions.

The Volgograd region is chosen as the main object of research in the article, in which attempts have already been unsuccessfully made several times to create waste processing plants, although it has very significant opportunities for this and which is capable of having significant competitive advantages in this area. Using her example, the subject under study can be presented most clearly and comprehensively.

As the main scientific method of this article, the method of comparative analysis of the state of advanced countries on the subject under study with the current situation of the regions of Russia on the example of the Volgograd region is used.

Environmental safety

Throughout the history of all mankind, nature has been one of the most important factors of its development, and not only as the material basis of this development, but also as a factor in the formation of industrial relations – the basis of human society. For example, the use of land, and all the relations that follow from it, which for a long time have generally been the basis of all human society. – the basis of industrial relations.

Industrial relations regarding the natural environment have been of particular importance since the middle of the XIX century in the era of capitalism, when the productive forces, which were avalanching in power, began to cause massive damage to the natural environment through large-scale emissions and pollution. In economics, at the same time, even a separate category was born – externalities, which are understood as harm from economic contracts for third parties ^{[15, p.236]}. The general idea of such a concept of externalities is that both the producer and the consumer benefit from transactions, but at the same time the local community suffers, which suffers from damage to nature due to pollution emissions as a result of the implementation of production processes during the execution of this transaction. The general theme here is considered in the form of the organization of payments from the beneficiaries in favor of the affected local community to compensate for the damage caused to it.  This theory of externalities was actively developed in the 50-60 years of the last century and has become an indispensable element of modern theory of economics.

Approximately from that moment, the practice of public administration in advanced countries necessarily included the reflection in all management documents of environmental protection topics applied to all levels of socio-economic systems.

The physical and chemical consequences of harmful emissions into the environment, as well as the associated harm to the health of the population in our country have been studied quite well. Practically all scientific research in the field of environmental safety is written according to the alarmism model and necessarily contains a variety of calculations about such harm, including statistical ones ^{[1, p. 85]}. Here, one way or another, it would only have to be repeated. Therefore, in this article we will only note that such harm is great and can lead to the most powerful environmental disasters and complicate the socio-economic development of almost any region of Russia or the country as a whole. And also pay attention to what is mentioned less often, the institutional and managerial aspect of the relevance of environmental safety.

The issues of ensuring environmental safety began to be developed most actively in our country after the Helsinki International Conference in 1975, where for the first time the issue of ecology was raised as a contradiction between capitalism and socialism. By the way, the initiator here were the countries of the West, putting forward environmental reproaches against the then USSR. Since the confrontation between capitalism and socialism at that time had the character of a "cold war", environmental issues for our country immediately acquired the character of national security.

This problem and management practice received their modern development after the adoption of the Concept of Sustainable Development at the International Conference in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. Here, this concept itself and the general transition of economic management in advanced countries after this conference to the management of challenges and threats led to the fact that this issue began to be considered from a security perspective and organically became part of the national security strategies of almost all leading countries. Thus, modern Russia could not help but be involved in this process. Therefore, the National Security Strategy of the modern Russian Federation has a whole section devoted to environmental safety issues, where, in relation to the topic of this article, it is emphasized that one of the main goals of state policy is "to reduce the volume of production and consumption waste generation, the development of the industry of their disposal and reuse" ^[14].

It is noteworthy that this strategy states: "The Russian Federation considers its territory, its landscape and biological diversity, unique ecological and resource potential as a national treasure, the preservation and protection of which are necessary to ensure the life of future generations, harmonious human development and the realization of the right of citizens to a favorable environment" ^[14].

Of course, the implementation of the national security strategy, including in the field of environmental security, is entrusted to the whole society. And practice here shows that the most successful tasks in society are those where, in addition to people's altruism, it is possible to use the economic interests of market subjects. And it is in the field of processing and disposal of industrial and household waste that environmental safety issues should be based on the economic interests of market participants by creating and operating appropriate production facilities using initiatives and investments of subjects of various forms of ownership. At the same time, of course, it is necessary to turn to advanced foreign experience, understand what difficulties exist in this area in our country and find ways of further development.

Conditions and prerequisites for the development of the waste treatment and waste disposal industry

The most striking feature of modern socio-economic development is the highest level of its integration into the system of global market relations. In fact, now practically no country can shape its economy arbitrarily. There are a lot of diverse obligations and conditions of an international nature that create niches strictly reserved for countries according to the international division of labor, in which each of the respective countries can develop and improve. One of the strictest such imperatives is the need to implement the concept of sustainable development.

This concept was formulated and adopted at the International Conference in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, predetermining for all countries of the world community such socio-economic development that would give optimal results in the field of global product production and ensuring a decent level of well-being for the entire population of the planet, taking into account such use of natural resources that would preserve these resources are for the next generations of the Earth. Moreover, all this should be done on the basis of market relations, taking into account the use of the entire complex of economic objects and subjects of the global market.

This approach has put forward the creation of production facilities for the processing and disposal of industrial and household waste as one of the most urgent directions of economic development.

A sufficiently large number of countries, especially those at the forefront of scientific and technological progress, could not fail to take advantage of this, using its achievements to ensure their own favorable ecology. The main tool in this case for advanced countries was the creation of incineration plants (MSZ), which in many countries began to be created, becoming in many countries very powerful industries using, first of all, solid municipal waste (MSW) as raw materials ^{[2, p.93]}.

Table 1 - Average share of MSW incineration in developed countries in 2018

Source: Shilkina S.V. Global trends in waste management and analysis of the situation in Russia URL: : https://resources.today/PDF/05ECOR120.pdf (Accessed: 27.07.2021

A comparative analysis of the above data allows us to identify four basic models for the development of the incineration and recycling system in advanced countries.

Table 2 - Basic models of incineration and recycling systems

Source: Compiled by the authors: Vakarev A.A., Vinogradov V.V. ....

Directly in Russia, the waste industry is developing according to the British model. But as a desired goal, it should be translated into the French model. Russia is the undisputed leader in its recreational potential and it needs to be used. The attractiveness of the French model for our country lies in the fact that the French actively earn on the processing and disposal of industrial and household waste, including through the export of similar services to other countries, and Russia could work in this area. Moreover, thanks to its capabilities, it could become a leader here, increasing its own environmental safety and providing such safety for export.

A very peculiar, but natural specificity of the development of waste incineration plants is that they have received the greatest development in the most technologically advanced countries with sufficient investment resources. There is a corresponding analysis in the scientific literature on this subject.

Fig. 1. Controllability of MSW disposal in cities by their income level, % ^[16]

Russia is closest to the British model in this global process and occupies a very specific place. It began the creation of its incineration industry almost twenty years later than the most advanced countries, to a large extent lags behind them, but begins to act quite actively in this direction, placing special emphasis on the disposal of industrial waste.

Table 3 - Formation, utilization and neutralization of production and consumption waste in the Russian Federation

Source: Environmental Protection in Russia. 2020: Stat. sat./Rosstat. – 0-92 M., 2020. – 114 p.

In terms of the volume of recycled waste for the period 2015-2019, the annual increase was 538 million tons. There was a corresponding increase in the volume of disposed and neutralized waste. Over the same period, the indicator of this increase amounted to 239 million tons on average for the year. In general, over the analyzed five years, with the overall growth in the volume of disposed and neutralized production and consumption waste in the country, the overall proportion of the share of disposal and neutralization was practically maintained. It was 53.5% with a total annual variance of 2.4%. This clearly indicates that the waste processing capacity in the country is growing quite slowly.  There is no qualitative leap that radically solves the problem of waste.  It is believed that market relations allow you to increase almost any production capacity at lightning speed, if there is any need in the market. Exceptions in such cases exist only when there is a monopoly, that is, the state deliberately puts up barriers, not allowing the market to solve certain problems. As statistics show, something similar happens in Russia, there are structures that do not allow the market to solve the existing problem. And something needs to be done about it.

The formation of most modern waste tends to urban settlements, in which the population and economic facilities are concentrated. This specificity is completely characteristic of the Russian Federation and is confirmed by statistics.