Within the European Week for Waste Reduction, EU4Environment organises an online webinar “Towards Waste Reduction in the Eastern Partner Countries” on 25 November 2021, 10:00 – 12:00, CEST. Russian interpretation will be provided.

Registration. You may register for this event through this link.

The European Week for Waste Reduction creates an opportunity to engage stakeholders and citizens into common action. This year it is dedicated to the ‘circular economy’, which is at the core of the European Green Deal, the new growth strategy of the European Union.

The EU4Environment event aims to show how the Programme contributes to the ambition for a waste reduction by different actors in the Eastern Partner countries. It will:

• Review progress in tackling waste issues in the EaP countries;
• Demonstrate the success stories and best practices to decrease waste; and
• Provide better understanding of improved waste prevention and management focusing on business benefits for SMEs.

Participants

The event will gather the representatives of the Ministries of Environment and of Economies in the Eastern Partner countries, relevant stakeholders, representatives of the civil society, academic community and business. The representatives of the European Commission, EU Delegations will also join the meeting.

Background

The Eastern Partner (EaP) countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Republic of Moldova, and Ukraine) have made efforts to strengthen waste management, including better collection, transportation, treatment and disposal of waste, supported by the monitoring and regulation of the waste management processes. The EaP countries started to harmonise their waste legislation with that in the European Union, and part of this transformation is the introduction of Extender Producer Responsibility (EPR) for various waste streams. Waste management practices are increasingly supported by the promotion of circular economy, i.e. a new way of creating value, and ultimately prosperity, through extending product lifespan and relocating waste from the end of the supply chain to the beginning – in effect, using resources more efficiently by using them more than once.

Despite the governments’ efforts waste management still remains a challenge. The key issues include: overly general and not ambitious waste management policies, under-developed legal frameworks; inadequate monitoring and insufficient data, low-priced, and in many cases uncontrolled, landfilling; insufficient economic instruments to stimulate waste reduction and better management (including recycling), and lack of investments in waste and recycling infrastructure.

Agenda:

10:00 – 10:15	Item 1. Welcome ·       Welcome by the EU ·       Setting the scene (UNEP) on behalf of EU4Environment Implementing Partners
10h15 – 10h30	Item 2. Developing policy framework for sustainable waste management ·       National waste management action plan in the Republic of Moldova
10h30 – 10h50	Item 3. Resource Efficient and Cleaner Production (RECP), a stepping stone in the implementation of circular economy practices ·       Success stories on waste-related RECP measures in selected Eastern Partner countries Questions and answers from the floor/chat
10:50 – 10:55	Break
10h55 – 11h15	Item 4. Enhancing synergies to improve  sustainability of resource use in groups of industries ·       Lessons from International Eco-Industrial Parks Framework promotion in Belarus and Moldova ·       Piloting Industrial Waste Mapping: Preliminary findings and first results from Azerbaijan, Georgia and Ukraine Questions and answers from the floor/chat
11h15 – 11h40	Item 5. Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes for packaging waste ·       Regional knowledge sharing of EPR system Questions and answers from the floor/chat
11:40 – 11:50	Item 6. Role of green public investments in biodegradable waste ·       Awareness about the biodegradable waste sector in Georgia Questions and answers from the floor/chat
11h50 – 12h00	Item 7. Wrap up ·       EU ·       UNIDO on behalf of EU4Environment Implementing Partners