as EXPRA MD – Joachim Quoden chaired 2 workshops on good governance and on EPR, spoke during the deposit session, EXPRA Regulatory & PA Manager – Monika Romenska presented best practices on communication and Alphan Eroztürk, Governmental and External Affairs Manager of CEVKO and chair of EXPRA EPR Implementation Working Group presented EXPRA common position during the informal sector Round Table.
Good governance Session:
EXPRA MD chaired a session in which the procedure to come up with good legislation in the waste sector was presented and discussed. Peter Börkey, OECD presented the procedure that was used to develop the resource efficiency guidelines of the OECD, Julius Langendorff, EC, DG Environment presented how the European Commission involved all stakeholders to develop the Circular Economy Package proposal and Peter Eek from Estonia and Ms Dulce Passaro, former Minister for Environment from Portugal, presented how this is done in their countries.
EPR Session:
3 key note speakers (Peter Börkey, OECD, Julius Langendorff, EC, DG Environment and Carlos Silva from the Brazilian Waste Management Association presented the status of EPR in their country respective in their organization) started this session which was moderated by EXPRA’s MD Joachim Quoden. During the session were presented: the motivation of the EC to come up with the general requirements for EPR, the status of a Brazilian framework law on reverse logistics which is a very similar idea as EPR. During the updated EPR guidelines of the OECD were officialy launched. It was agreed by all panelists that minimum requirements for EPR are necessary to make any EPR system a success, especially in the case of several service providers, a clearing house or central agency is strongly needed.
Informal Sector Session
In the session participated representatives of NGOs, informal recyclers and waste collectors, EPR Organizations and consultancy companies. During the sessions the relations between the waste collectors/recyclers, local authorities, WMC and Producer Responsibility Organisations as well as some best practices and solution of current problems were discussed. The situation regarding the informal sector in Serbia, Macedonia and Kosovo as well as some international examples on integration of Informal Recycling Sector in Brazil, South Africa and Colombia were presented.
Mr. Alphan Eröztürk, CEVKO presented the situation in Turkey and the practical solutions found: the street collectors can work as «individual collectors» in cooperation with WMCs and also showed some estimations on the impact (financial and material losses) of the IS on the operation of EPR systems in the Balkan region. He underlined that all stakeholders should work towards the legalization of the informal sector, as illegal operation is not an option.
Communicating Circular Economy, Communication and behavioral change Session
The session focused on how communication can play a major role in changing people’s behavior, and how different stakeholders can be used to make a difference. The session included presentations on: successful projects on waste management in social media, resource management and the role of communication in reputation management.
The best practices in awareness raising campaigns on promoting separate collection from EXPRA members: Belgium, Israel, Malta, Bulgaria and Turkey were also presented and highly appreciated by the participants. The presented practices demonstrated the wide variety of approaches and means used by EXPRA members not only to create and maintain environmentally friendly behavior, but also to support charity campaigns and social inclusion.