On 7 March 2013, the European Commission issued a green paper on plastic waste. The objective of this green paper is to consult stakeholders on responses to policy challenges posed by plastic waste.

The Green Paper aims to gather facts and views in order to assess the impacts of plastic waste and define a European strategy to mitigate them. Stakeholders are invited to contribute their views on whether, and how, existing legislation should be adapted to deal with plastic waste and promote re-use, recycling and recovery of plastic waste over landfilling. Views are also sought on the effectiveness of potential recycling targets, and of economic measures such as landfill bans, landfill taxes and pay-as-you-throw schemes. The Green Paper also asks how to improve the modular and chemical design of plastic to improve recyclability, how to reduce marine litter and whether there is a need to promote biodegradable plastics.

Stakeholders can submit their opinion until 7 June 2013.

Consult the Green paper on plastic waste

Pre-waste gives examples of good practices aimed at preventing plastic waste, for instance in packaging.

26/03/2013 WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) has recently started to promote a communication campaign about opportunities for reuse on the British island.

WRAP is distributing to public and private actors communication materials such as posters, leaflets and web banners to promote the socio-economic advantage of greater reuse rates. The materials will be delivered to local authorities, nonprofit organizations and companies dealing somehow with waste issues and collection. It contains helpful information about the value of supposed obsolete materials and the reuse opportunities of furniture, textiles, and electrical and electronic equipments.

WRAP has already successfully tested the communication materials within 6 different areas (Leeds, Shropshire, Inverness, Nairn, London Borough of Bexley, and Oxford) in collaboration with public and private partners. It resulted that five out of six areas has improved the collection rates of materials to be reused and a survey conducted during the project indicates that 45% of respondents who recalled the information went on to or will change their behaviour when disposing materials. A report illustrating the results of this trial project was published in August 2012 on the WRAP website.

Linda Crichton, Head of Collections and Quality at WRAP, commented saying that opportunities are increasingly seized by people and businesses and that the value potential of reused materials amounts to over £200m in the UK. She pointed out the strength of the communication project saying “we know that re-use organisations, recyclers and local authorities are looking to tap in to economic opportunities by increasing the amount of re-usable items they collect, this can be achieved with the help of communications.”

The Pre-waste project highlighted several successful examples of reuse activities and communication campaigns in the Pre-waste best practices factsheets.

Source: WRAP: http://www.wrap.org.uk/content/free-posters-and-leaflets-will-help-unlock-benefits-re-use

Focus: Brussels, a leader for expertise sharing

During the three years of implementation of the Pre-waste project, Brussels Environment was in charge of coordinating the development of the Pre-waste common methodology, research and expertise sharing on waste prevention good practices and feasibility studies on the transfer of some of these good practices on the partners’ territories.

Brussels Environment (IBGE-BIM) is the public service in charge of environment and energy in the Brussels-Capital Region in Belgium. Besides tackling waste prevention, Brussels Environment studies, monitors and manages air, water, soil, noise, as well as green areas and biodiversity within the region. Within the Pre-waste project, Brussels Environment was in charge of component 3, related to good practices and common methodology.

Since 1992, Brussels Environment has launched four multi-annual waste plans, the most recent one placing a particular emphasis on reducing waste generation, with concrete reduction targets by waste flow. As a result, Brussels Environment has extensive experience in waste prevention actions in the Brussels-Capital Region, involving different target groups, waste flows and means.

Besides contributing to the gathering and analysis of waste prevention cases, Brussels Environment coordinated the work of other Pre-waste partners on the waste prevention good practices and methodology. In particular, this work involved gathering all the waste prevention cases identified by Pre-waste partners in a mapping report, impelling the analysis of waste prevention good practices, preparing some templates for good practice factsheets and posters, and working with ACR+ on the common methodology for waste prevention strategies.

For its feasibility study, Brussels Environment chose to focus on the transfer of a good practice related to reusable food and drink containers implemented in Munich, Germany and Vienna, Austria. The objective of this practice is to significantly reduce municipal waste generated by the use of disposable food and drink containers (packaging, cups and tableware), by banning their use at events taking place on city-owned land, facilities and retail spaces, while at the same time offering free coaching services for sustainable events.