CAPonLITTER Final Event:
Lessons on waste prevention for policy-makers
After 3 years, the CAPonLITTER project concluded its work by organising a high-level dissemination event in Brussels on May 17th, 2023. The event was organised by Zero Waste Europe, one of the project partners, and looked at some of Europe’s best practice initiatives on waste prevention implemented by coastal municipalities and regions. The event brought over 65 people together to hear from each of the project partners about the best practices they have seen and how this has influenced each of their respective regional action plans. Each partner also attended the event with some of their local stakeholders, so that policy-makers based in Brussels could connect with the specific actors who have been behind these best practices, helping inform these individuals how the results and impact of local initiatives can best inform key upcoming legislative decisions on plastic production, use and waste.
The event itself was split into two panel discussions. During the first half, project partners presented on their action plans that have informed regional public policies on better waste prevention of key fractions of waste, such as plastic food and drink containers originating from beach facilities and recreational events.
Presentations given by each speaker can be found in the project library.
The second half of the event included a more informal panel discussion to go into greater detail on what these best practices should mean for policy-making here in Brussels The conference and this discussion in particular was especially timely, given the upcoming discussions around 2 key pieces of legislation that will impact plastic waste generation, the major source of marine-based pollution – the EU Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) and the second round of negotiations for the UN’s global plastics treaty. The discussions provided an excellent overview over some of the key policies that the panellists believe are needed in order to build a strong framework that enables coastal authorities and their local stakeholders to accelerate the transition away from single-use to reuse in order to prevent the most common marine litter items, which are single-use plastics.
