Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 18th April 2024 Issue no. 1110
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Recycling & Recovery International Trade Fair to analyse circular economy from all perspectives
According to estimates from the European Commission, if all of the applicable legislation concerning waste management were to be implemented, more than 400,000 jobs would be created in the European Union, of which 52,000 would be in Spain.
The 5th Recycling & Recovery International Trade Fair, SRR, which will be held from 15th to 17th June 2016, at Feria de Madrid, Spain, is designed to encourage everyone to take waste management seriously.
It will provide the most comprehensive meeting point for the recycling sector in the region, offering those that attend the opportunity to analyse the circular economy from all perspectives.
Organised by IFEMA, the event is being held with TECMA (International Trade Fair for Town Planning & the Environment), ESCLEAN (Association for Cleaning & Professional Hygiene) and ENVIFOOD, in collaboration with AEFIMI (Association of Manufacturers & Importers of Industrial Cleaning Machinery) and supported by FIAB (Spanish Federation of Food & Beverage Industries). It will be co-located with the second ENVIFOOD event and will feature the second Forum for Sustainable Environmental Solutions as well as the Cities Forum.
"Faced with the growth in the demand for goods worldwide and with the threat of the depletion of raw materials, in this edition of the event, the establishment of the circular economy will be of particular importance - indeed it has come about as a necessity," say the SRR organisers. "The production system based on a linear economy with a 'cradle to cradle' concept reminds us that sooner or later the resources available to us will be depleted and all of the machinery of our economy could collapse.
"The circular economy has presented a possible solution to this collapse, in such a way that the products and resources contained in them can be used again and again on an infinite basis.
"Nevertheless, in order for this to be the case, the current linear management system needs to be transformed, in which waste is managed with the aim of minimising its impact on the environment, in a comprehensive system in which the product concept, its eco-design, its manufacturing, the operational phase and the recycling are coordinated in a perfect manner."
The Organising Committee recognises that the current recycling sector is prepared to take on the challenge - a fact that has already been demonstrated through some waste flow processes that are recycled in a perfect manner.
"For example, waste such as lead summarises what perfect circular recycling is... When the last lead mine was closed in Spain 32 years ago - and ever since then, 100% of lead that is used in products that are so necessary, such as vehicle batteries, has been recycled. Furthermore, a system has been implemented for both the design of the battery and its eventual collection at the end of the cycle, which means that nearly all batteries can be once again put back into the system, to be used as a raw material for other new batteries.
"Throughout the whole process, waste managers, in other words, the people responsible for the recycling, are fundamental to ensure that products are suitably treated and that all their components are once again introduced into the production chain.
"Luckily we are supported by a very professional and highly technical industry, which has carried out a true industrial revolution over the last 20 years, which has meant that nowadays the industry is ready to take on the enormous challenge, together with the rest of the society, which will involve implementing a true circular economy.
"In the design and manufacturing phase for new products, it is fundamental that it is taken into account that such products shall later be intended for recycling in their entirety and, furthermore, that the use of raw materials deriving from recycled materials needs to be increased, more so than from raw materials extracted from natural means.
"Turning waste into new resources by means of recycling is an essential objective of the industrial policies and for the sustainability of resources across Europe. In this way, over the last few years, the recycling sector contributed a lot towards the achievement of a Circular Economy strategy."
Along these lines, the Cabinet has approved the Framework State Plan for Waste Management (PEMAR) 2016-2022, following proposals from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food & the Environment, which establishes the strategic lines and measures needed to make progress towards the cited circular economy and to promote the preparation for re-use and recycling.
The end objective of PEMAR, in the same way as that of the Community waste policy, is to turn Spain into a society with an efficient use of resources. In short, it involves replacing a linear economy based on production, consumption and disposal, with a circular economy in which the materials that contain the waste are introduced back into the production process over and over again, for the production of new products or raw materials.
This plan, which is the instrument for guiding the waste policy in Spain in the coming six years, will encourage the implementation of the measures that provide a better environmental result and that ensure that Spain complies with the legal objectives for waste management.
In addition to the environmental benefits of the plan (protection of human health, of natural resources and the climate), this initiative also contributes social and economic benefits associated with increased economic activity related to waste, with the increase in availability of raw materials in safe conditions and with the creation of employment deriving from the advancement for the preparation for re-use and recycling.
The organising committee consists of the Spanish Federation for Retrieval & Recycling, FER; the Spanish Association of Car Recycling & Scrapping, AEDRA; the National Association of Plastic Recycling; the Spanish Association of Paper & Cardboard Recovery, REPACAR; the National Association of Environmental Auditors & Analysers, ANAVAM; the Ministry of Agriculture, Food & the Environment, MAGRAMA, with the General Management of Environmental & Natural Environmental Quality & Evaluation; the National Association of Pallet Recycling, ANREPA; the Spanish Association of Standardisation and Certification, AENOR; the Spanish Association for the Environmental Treatment of Out of Use Vehicles, SIGRAUTO; the National Group for Glass Recycling, ANAREVI, and the National Association of Plastic Recycling, ANARPLA.
26th November 2015