The 3rd Interregional Seminar organized within the framework of the project SUBTRACT revolved around the presentation and discussion of action plans in each partner region. Organized by the Office of the Regional Government of Styria and with over 40 participants, including project partners and their regional stakeholders, the meeting took place virtually on July, 6, 2021.
Apart from the concrete actions to be implemented in the second phase of the project in 2022, project partners presented detailed information on stakeholders that will be involved in the implementation of these actions as well as impact on the policy instrument addressed in each region.
The actions proposed by partner regions ranged from the “on demand” door-to-door collection of household bulky waste, creation of professional training for reuse or digital tools for reuse, implementation of a reuse shopping mall to a legal and organizational guide for re-use operators and start-ups and different measures for changing behavioural attitudes such as micro-influencers.
Many of the actions have been inspired by good practice examples presented during the SUBTRACT interregional meetings and staff exchanges, including the shopping mall ReTuna in Sweden and the activities of the Cooperativa Insieme in Italy or Fundación Amiga in Spain.
“Since a reuse shopping mall is subject of action plans in many partner regions, a further exchange between project partners in this regard would be interesting” said Kati Hinkkanen from the Helsinki Metropolitan Area Reuse Centre.
Alfred Vara from the Waste Agency of Catalonia summarized: “It’s the whole process of exchange that makes a difference for us […] Interreg gives us the possibility to learn about what other project partners are doing abroad, to have access to their good practices, but also to analyze what is happening in our region by doing the background analysis and to create stakeholder groups to deal with important topics in our region”.
During the plenary discussion Paolo Ferraresi from the advisory partner RREUSE analyzed the feasibility of the action plans and their compatibility with project’s objectives. He stressed the fact that the legislation on reuse and preparation for reuse is the key aspect in all regions. Synergies and cooperation between partners, especially in regard to the legislation (good practice example from Italy) was emphasized. Moreover, when it comes to digital platforms, there are many well-working examples that should serve as inspiration while planning the actions. An individual, written feedback regarding action plans by RREUSE had been sent to the partners prior to the seminar.
In conclusion, Ingrid Winter from the Regional Government of Styria announced that, for those partners who will be able travel, the second part of the project meeting could take place physically in Styria on 7-8 September 2021. In this context, she invited project partners to the European Roundtable for Sustainable Consumption and Production that takes place in Graz, Austria, between 8-10 September 2021. Within the framework of the conference, the Regional Government of Styria will organize three sessions in on all Interreg Europe projects in which it currently participates. The SUBTRACT-Session will take place on the 8th of September.
