Joachim Quoden, Managing Director of EXPRA moderated the EPR Toolkit Seminar – Creating a Level Playing Field for EPR Across Europe, that took place in Brussels on 24 February 2015 and preceded the Packaging Waste and Sustainability Forum 2015.
The seminar started with an overview of the EPR legislation on national level that was followed by a presentation of the obliged Industry’s point of view concerning the history of the EPR and packaging recycling development since 1988 and the current challenges in ensuring a fair competitive environment.
During the first panel of the Workshop, representatives of different EPR models: Duales System Holding GmbH, Germany, ETO, Estonia and Repack, Ireland discussed the European experiences of EPR legislation and the challenges, resulting from the different approaches. An interesting debate followed on who should be responsible for the collection of packaging waste – the municipalities or the EPR systems, in which participated representatives of the Waste Management Corporation Munich AMW, Germany and the Environment Exchange, UK.
During the second part of the Workshop the discussion was focused on the issues of transparency and competition with the participation of representatives of Altstoff Recycling AG, Austria, the Reclay Group, ACR+ and EKO KOM, the Czech Republic.
A special panel was dedicated to the EPR implementation outside Europe, with presentations from the Canadian Stewardship Services Alliance, the Global Product Stewardship Council (GlobalPSC), Australia and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), South Africa.
EXPRA also organised a well-attended dinner at the occasion of the forum, with Peter Börkey from the OECD’s Environment Directorate as guest speaker.
The GlobalPSC published a story about the seminar in its most recent newsletter, stating that the “seminar emphasized harmonising EPR rules and guidelines in Europe, learning from international experience and the roles of transparency and competition.”
Please see here for the GlobalPSC story:
https://www.globalpsc.net/