Association’s representatives attended the St.Petersburg International Economic Forum-2023 (SPIEF-23) and spoke at the round table on June 17 under the joint special project of RUSLOM.COM and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Russia (CCI) “Young Ambassadors of the Circular Economy”. The moderator and speaker of the round table was Maria Tyukaeva, Head of the special project of the CCI’s Council for Ecology and Development of the Curcular Economy “Young Ambassadors of the Circular Economy”. The round table was attended by Alexander Khrapugin, Director of JSC Saratov Region Development Corporation; Elmurod Rasulmukhamedov, First Deputy of Central Council of All-Russian Public Organisation “All-Russian Society for Nature Conservation”; Natalia Belyaeva, General Director of law firm “Delphi”; and Alexey Kondratyev, Public Relations Director of RUSLOM.COM. In his speech, Mr. Kondratyev, in particular, spoke about the mechanisms of popularising scrap industry among young people through working with the public, media, and authorities.
The topics of the presentations and discussions included exchange of experience in implementing industry projects; creating new joint projects of business and public organisations on involvement of young people into recycling sphere; interaction of authorities, business, and educational institutions to create incentives for development of human and scientific potential in the industry of scrap and metal waste management. The participants also spoke about informing young professionals about the prospects and importance of the industry and popularising work in the field of scrap recycling.
The speakers noted that scrap and metal waste management was a young industry of the Russian economy with a 100-year history (its status was secured in 2021 by the Government of the Russian Federation).
It is significant for our country and the world as a whole. In Russia, scrap processing has gone from the State Plan to a highly competitive market and self-regulation. Now its importance has grown and is not only about supplying steelmakers with strategic raw materials, but also about achieving the goals of sustainable development, circular economy, and decarbonisation.
The international company Wood Mackenzie estimates that to avoid global warming of more than two degrees Celsius not more than 360 million tonnes of aluminium, 90 million tonnes of copper, and 30 million tonnes of nickel will have to be produced in the next 20 years. These are the metals used in production of electric cars, whose sales will rise sharply in the coming years. An efficient and environmentally friendly solution is to recycle the metals.
Due to the fact that the industry is high-tech, it is constantly in the focus of legislative changes. It now seriously benefits from the increased role of self-regulated organisation established by legislators, and constantly improves methods of processing new types of metal waste. The scrap recycling industry, therefore, requires an active involvement of young professionals and strengthening of human resources potential.
The Director of JSC Saratov Region Development Corporation, Alexander Khrapugin, fully appreciated the importance of the industry in his region. He spoke in detail about how the agency that he heads was developing human capital, especially by working with young people. In general, the Saratov Region has demonstrated impressive successes in recent years in terms of economic growth, import substitution, and attracting investors.
The moderator of the round table, Maria Tyukaeva, formulated the intention to build strategic interaction with the Saratov Region and its Development Corporation within the existing project “Young Ambassadors of the Circular Economy”. In particular, the region could become a platform for organising business trips for young scrap processing specialists to successful enterprises there, with the support of the local administration, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation and the Association RUSLOM.COM.
