SCP/RAC participated in the SWEEP-NET Forum

The forum gather participants from public and private sector, NGOs, donors, academics, research institutes, etc in order to exchange experiences and perspectives.

On behalf of the Catalan Waste Agency, institution that hosts SCP/RAC in Barcelona, Mr Frederic Gallo imparted a presentation about "Extended Producer Responsability: the catalan experience in Packaging and Packaging waste". Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for packaging and other waste streams is becoming an increasingly interesting option for countries. The EPR is seen by public authorities as a way to reduce plastic packaging, to organize resource recovery and recycling more effectively and to share the costs of managing the system with the packaging producers. EPR can sgnificantly reduce littering and spreading of plastic packaging in the environment and specially in the Mediterranean sea, which is an important goal of all the Mediterranean Countries. In this respect, the Regional Plan on Marine Litter, approved on December 2013 in Turkey by the Contracting Parties of the Barcelona Convention for the protection of the Mediterranean sea against pollution, is the first global regional plan on marine liiter.

Mr Gallo presented the experience of the EPR of light packaging during the last 18 years in Catalonia, which has led to very positive results with regard to the collection and managment of ligh packaging, altough it is still insufficient.

After the presentation there was an interesting exchange of points of view with different representatives of the civil society about the serious problem that represents the plastic packaging, specially the beverage packaging and the plastic bags, for the environment.

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