The EU Green Week is the largest annual event on environmental policies in Europe. This year, environmental laws and the process of environmental implementation were under the spotlight. The topic was addressed in a broad sense, covering water and air quality, protection of nature but also recycling and waste management.
This year, the Green Week events concentrated in Brussels between 13 and 17 May 2019, and were hosted by EU institutions or partners. An agenda and recordings of the main events are available online.
In addition to the high-level policy summit, a series of satellite events have been organised across Europe. Many of them were of high interest for the WINPOL project, and even co-organised by some of the WINPOL partners. Here is a small selection:
During this workshop hosted by ACR+, experts from the Waste4Think project discussed with relevant stakeholders the system of Pay As You Throw, its challenges and impacts on citizens. It also tackled the new concept of Know As You Throw. Recording of the workshop is available online.
This workshop organised on 14 May 2019 in Brussels by French recycling company, Citeo and ACR+ gathered circular economy actors from across Europe to discuss ways of overcoming the challenges for the waste management sector brought by the EU’s circular economy package and European strategy for plastics. In a first round table entrepreneurs, environmental organisations and policymakers discussed how innovative packaging solutions can help meet EU targets for waste collection, recyclability and re-use of secondary raw materials. During the second session, municipalities and entrepreneurs shared innovative urban waste collection practices with a view to identifying how municipalities can serve as a laboratory for the implementation of environmental legislation through collective development of innovative systems.
The delegation of the government of Navarre in Brussels hold a workshop on 15 May 2019 to present a new law on waste and its taxation with the aim of developing measures to reduce waste, ensuring efficient waste sorting, particularly with regard to organic matter, and establishing a new taxation system to penalise landfill use. The initial results were presented, along with good waste prevention practices from Belgium, Germany and Portugal.
The Circular Change Conference is one of the key gatherings of circular economy professional from all over Europe. The 4th edition was titled "On the ground - everyday challenges of circular companies". Taking place on 16-17 May 2019 in Maribor, it focused on a mixture of high-level discussions on the achievements of circular economy strategies, workshops, and best practice presentations of leading companies who are taking the first steps towards a true circular transformation. The importance of supporting circular design through policy and concrete action was also highlighted.
