On 22 November 2019, Reloop Platform and the European Federation of Bottled Waters (EFBW) jointly organized the first Conference on Best in Class Deposit Return Systems for Single Use Beverage Packaging. The conference is timely and is a response to the new EU Single Use Plastic Directive (SUPD), which, among other things, requires Member States to achieve a 77% by 2025 and 90% by 2029 collection for recycling target of single-use plastic beverage bottles, and identifies DRS as a tool to achieve this.
The aim of the conference, hosted in Brussels by the European Committee of the Regions, was to bring together governments, DRS operators, experts, producers and technology providers from countries across Europe to offer their expertise on the various components of best in class DRS systems. The conference was targeted towards four primary audiences including:
- national and EU policy-makers faced with drafting DRS legislation, to learn about requisite legislative components like program scope, targets and penalties, container marking, etc.;
- local and regional authorities to learn about transitional issues related to DRS and opportunities to save on waste management costs;
- beverage producers and distributors to better understand the implications of EPR and the opportunities to use DRS to increase recycled content; and
- retailers, to learn from existing retail operations on how DRS can generate benefits like increased food traffic and improved brand image.
Conference Materials
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Invitation
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Agenda
- Presentations
- Jean-Pierre Deffis, European Federation of Bottled Waters
- Alessandro Pasquale, Mattoni 1873 (Czech Republic): The Great Journey
- Prof Dr. Remo Klinger, Geulen & Klinger: How DRS fits legally into Europe’s Single Market?
- Bettina Lorz, DG Environment Commission: The Single Use Plastics Directive: How it Impacts Beverage Packaging
- Marc Muscat, Resource Recovery and Recycling Agency (Malta): Beverage Containers Recycling Regulations
- Claire Munro & Donald McCalman, Zero Waste Scotland: Designing and Implementing Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme
- Ján Dráb, Slovakian Institute for Environmental Policy: Implementing DRS in Slovakia
- Anna Larsson, Reloop Platform: Deposit systems for beverage containers in Europe
- Bengt Lagerman, Returpack (Sweden): Returpack – Sweden
- Tommi Vihavainen, PALPA (Finland): PALPA
- Kjell Olav Maldum, Infinitum:Infinitum
- Carsten Schleeberger, Remondis, Plastics Recycling (Germany): Tool Box for Best-in-Class System Design
- Rauno Raal, Earth Care Consulting (Estonia): Baltics DRS – Estonia, Lithuania (Latvia)
- Dominic Hogg, Eunomia Research and Consulting (UK): The Impact of Deposit Refund Schemes on Municipalities
- Tristan Brunin, Amalur (France): Impact of the Introduction of a Deposit Recovery System (on beverage bottles) on the French sorting plants (MRFs)
- Christof Delatter, Association of Flemish Cities and Municipalities (Belgium)
- Francoise Bonnett, Association of Cities and Regions
- Saulius Galadauskas, Lithuanian Brewers Association (Lithuania): Integration of Collection Infrastructure for Refillable and One Way Packaging in Lithuania
- Alessandro Pasquale, Mattoni 1873 (Czech Republic): Governance, Implementation & System Design: Considerations for the Beverage Industry
- Maria Micallef, The General Soft Drinks Company Limited (Malta): DRS Malta
- Julia Leferman, Brewers of Romania: Perspectives for setting-up a DRS addressing Single-Use Beverage Packaging
Videos
Live stream recording of the event
Event Photos
