Brussels, 09/02/2016 (Agence Europe) - The IMPACTPapeRec project combines innovation, research and the participative economy. It has just been started up in the European Union to promote the separate collection of waste. This important aspect of the circular economy is the basis of the European Commission proposals put forward in this connection in December 2015 (see EUROPE 11479).
IMPACTPapeRec is a consortium of 19 partners from 8 EU member states (Germany, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Spain, France, Poland and Romania). It seeks to place Europe in the avant-garde of paper and cardboard waste collection for recycling, through the setting up of an innovative platform for joint know-how.
This project is funded through the EU Horizon 2020 research programme and began at the beginning of February 2016 for a two-year period. It results from a commitment made in favour of promoting the separate collection of paper and cardboard, as part of the European Innovation Partnership on Raw Materials. It mobilises a wide range of stakeholders, such as representatives from research institutes, regional authorities, producers working in this area and also expands the sphere of responsibility for producers from the papermaking industry, as well as NGOs.
The project focuses on two categories of country: those whose rate of paper and cardboard collection is below the European average (such as Bulgaria, Poland and Romania) and those (such as France and the United Kingdom) in which household paper and cardboard are often collected in a single waste collection or mixed with other recyclables.
Antonio Dobon from the ITENE Institute, coordinates the project and said “We will also seek for Paper for Recycling collection practices that allow both environmental and economic benefits. In doing so, we will define these best practices and spread them widely in Europe so that other municipalities can adopt them”
Participants began by discussing the existing schemes, as well as the indicators for defining best practices in separate waste collection schemes. IMPACPapeRec was launched on 1 February in Valencia, Spain, during a meeting attended by 36 experts from 8 of the countries involved.
Separate collection is a way of collecting waste separately from the main waste collections and is based on a specific kind of waste material. It therefore seeks to facilitate specific waste processing in compliance with the requirements from the 2008 revised framework directive on waste (2008/98/EC). (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)