EXPRA, the European Extended Producer Responsibility Alliance, which represents 30 PROs from 28 countries, in collaboration with CONAI, the Italian PRO, organised the first EPR Congress on 26 and 27 September 2022 titled “Efficiency through diversity: EPR best practices across the EU”. The Congress focused on the principle of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), one of the key principles implemented across the EU via the WFD and PPWD to fund a collection and recycling system which provides a practical solution to achieving a circular economy
EU Countries have built different models of packaging waste management, each with its own specificities, and each effectively carrying out its mandate. The Italian one, represented by CONAI, and the Belgian one, represented by Fost Plus, have both achieved high collection and recycling rates despite having very diverse systems in place. Both systems have been appropriately tailored according to regional specificities, consumer needs and number of inhabitants, which means that, when applied to different contexts than the one they were created for, they would not deliver the same results.
You can see the agenda here and an article for the Congress here and the slide deck here.