Pig manure causes lawsuit: fertilizer or hazardous waste?

The Arbitration COURT upheld the position of Rosprirodnadzor in a dispute with Uralsky Pig Farm JSC

At the end of June 2021, the Arbitration Court of the Urals District refused to recognize the refusal of the Ural Department of Rosprirodnadzor to approve waste generation standards and limits for their disposal as illegal, as well as the obligation of the Rosprirodnadzor Department to issue a document on the approval of waste generation standards and limits on their placement without the standard for waste "fresh pig manure".

As a reminder, on November 11, 2020, Pig Farm Uralsky JSC applied to the Arbitration Court of the Sverdlovsk Region with a similar request. 01/20/2021 By the decision of the Arbitration Court of the Sverdlovsk Region, the company denied the claim.

04/05/2021 By the decision of the Seventeenth Arbitration Court of Appeal, the decision of the Arbitration Court of the Sverdlovsk Region was upheld, the appeal of the livestock enterprise was not satisfied.

The court of cassation, refusing the Uralsky pig farm on June 23, agreed with the conclusions of the lower courts, which established that the generated waste is included in the Federal Classification Catalog of Waste, and therefore there are obligations under the current legislation for their accounting and inventory, establishing standards for the formation and limit on disposal, as well as on the preparation of passports for hazardous waste generated as a result of production activities.

The court also noted that the use of "pig manure" in the form of organic fertilizer in accordance with the received certificate does not refute the fact that a controversial waste was formed in the course of the activity of the pig farm and does not relieve it from fulfilling the obligations established by the current legislation.