Conference: Organic Waste in Urban Environments - New European Challenges
Brussels, Committee of the Regions
20-21 Nov. 2008
Organized by:
.
In collaboration with:
.
View this page in: French - Dutch - Spanish
.
The agreement on the new Waste Framework-Directive voted by the
European Parliament on 17 June 2008 sets out a number of new rules
for Member States, such as putting together binding national
programmes on waste prevention as well as achieving reuse and
recycling targets by 2020. Besides, regarding the management of
organic waste, the new Framework-Directive encourages Member States
to organise the separate collection of organic waste in order to
compost it or digest it and to treat it in a way that fulfils a
high level of environmental protection.
In order to promote information exchange about how to implement
the new European rules and to foster the debate at European level,
particularly about the appropriateness of concrete actions for
waste prevention and recycling, ACR+ (the Association of Cities and
Regions for Recycling and sustainable Resource management) and
Bruxelles Environment (the Environment Administration of the
Brussels-Capital Region) held an international conference on
“Organic Waste in Urban Environments” on 20 & 21
November 2008.
This event was supported by the Minister for the Environment of
the Brussels-Capital Region Ms Evelyne Huytebroeck and by the
Committee of the Regions; it was organised in cooperation with CEMR
(Council of European Municipalities and Regions) and ICLEI (Local
Governments for Sustainability).
Programme Highlights:
3 thematic sessions:
-
Organic waste and climate change
-
Reduction at source of kitchen and garden waste
-
Collection and treatment of kitchen and garden waste
Closing session
A closing session about the European policy on organic waste
prevention and recycling featured high-level
representatives from various regions, from the European
Commission and the Committee of the Regions.
These gave their insight on the following issues:
-
What is the new Framework-Directive going to bring in ?
-
Which additional legal measures do we need on organic waste
?
-
How to support a European Week on Waste Reduction ?
Languages: French – English – Dutch
Side Events
There will be a number of events alongside the conference:
- The pilot edition of the European Week for Waste
Reduction was presented at a press conference
which took place on 18 November at 2pm at Tours &
Taxis (Brussels), together with the opening of an
exhibition organized by the Brussels-Capital Region in the
framework of the exhibition "It's our Earth!".
- The 2008 General Assembly of ACR+ took
place on 20 November in the morning.
DETAILED PROGRAMME
.
This conference endeavoured to be a model in terms of CO2
impact :
- Focus on preventing and limiting CO2 emissions
- Analysis of the results
- Open communication about how to do even better.