Recycling of used lubricating oil will be become mandatory from 1st March 2014 in Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia.
The new technical regulations are being implemented by the Customs Union of the three countries and could see the a boom in the used oil recycling industry, already popular in the US through companies such as Universal Lubricants.
In the first regulation of its kind since the collapse of the Soviet Union, companies will have to drastically modify the methods for treating used lubricants and will no longer be able to burn waste lubricating oil for fuel purposes.
With no current regulation on disposal of waste lubricants in Russia, the country will need to make a number of adjustments to tariffs and customs, including eliminating import duties on equipment used for collecting and re-refining waste lubes.
Responsibility for compliance in Russia is likely to be through Rosstandart - Russia’s agency for technical regulation and metrology- and Rosprirodnadzor, another state-run agency which supervises environmental issues.