DEFECTS OF THE CONCEPTUAL AND CATEGORICAL APPARATUS OF WASTE MANAGEMENT LEGISLATION: THE CONSTITUTIONAL LAW DIMENSION OF THE TRANSITION TO A CIRCULAR ECONOMY

Abstract

The article provides a critical analysis of the conceptual and categorical apparatus of Federal Law No. 89-FZ of 24 June 1998 «On Production and Consumption Waste», focusing on three core statutory definitions: «waste», «municipal solid waste», and «waste management» from the perspective of their conformity with constitutional requirements and the objectives of the transition to a circular economy. Using formal-legal, systemic, and comparative-legal methods, eight interrelated defects of the conceptual apparatus are identified: causal, subjective, temporal uncertainty, presumption of environmental hazard, blanket indeterminacy of disposition, in-correct sectoral identification of the object, disproportionate restriction of property rights, and hierarchical deficit. It is established that these defects are systemic in nature and reproduce the sanitary-liquidation paradigm of the linear economy, contradicting the positive obligations of the state arising from Articles 9, 42 and 58 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation. The absence of a statutory definition of «circular economy» at the federal legislative level is shown to create a systemic gap between the strategic goals of public policy – as enshrined in Presidential Decree No. 309 of 7 May 2024 and the «Circular Economy» federal project – and the normative framework for their realisation. To fill the identified definitional, hierarchical, and regime gaps, the author proposes definitions of «waste», «municipal solid waste», «waste management», «circular economy», «circular legal regime», and «legal space of waste management». A five-level systematisation of the conceptual apparatus is constructed (categorical-object, normative, spatial, regime, and operational levels), grounded in the constitutional foundations of the Russian Federation (Articles 9, 36, 42, and 58 of the Constitution) and ensuring normative continuity in the transition from a linear to a circular paradigm.