Between 35% and 40% of the country’s recycling industry has been shut down due to complications regarding the National Environmental Fund, ISNA cited the head of Iran Recycling Industries Union as saying on Friday.
“The fund was established during former president Mohammad Khatami’s presidency and it was supposed to receive 0.05% from the sale of any manufactured product to be used to compensate recycling costs”, said Vali Qolami, regretting that the fund has so far received nothing.
Qolami, however, added that the fund has been recently reactivated but there is neither money nor a defined mechanism for receiving its share from the manufacturers. The union official said there are more than 1.5 million people working in the recycling sector including those who collect, separate, and recycle refuse as well as those who process and sell the recycled materials.
Qolami emphasized that considering the fact that the industry is a big energy consumer, it is necessary to develop and modernize recycling for the sake of the environment.
The union head criticized high taxes levied on the recycling industry, saying the government even collects value added taxes (VATs) for the recycled materials.
Some 5 million metric tons of metals are annually recycled in Iran while the capacity is around 16 million metric tons. Plastics and polymers are almost entirely recycled otherwise it would take some 400 years for such materials to naturally decompose, according to Qolami.
Unlike many developed countries, the recycling laws in Iran are loose while activists have long been warning against the bulk of hazardous waste materials left unrecycled every year.
