At the end of October, prior to and as part of the World Resources Forum conference, the CEWASTE consortium held a series of meetings, consultations and workshops that highlighted the progress the project has made and will dictate the crucial next steps. The project consortium meeting was held across the 21 and 22 October and this was followed by the much anticipated consultation meeting that gave the opportunity for external stakeholders to discuss the first draft of the certification scheme outline.
CEWASTE aims to develop and test a voluntary certification scheme for collection, transport and treatment facilities of key types of waste containing significant quantities of valuable and critical raw materials (CRMs). In order to ensure broad acceptance of the scheme and to allow contribution from relevant experts, the project is engaging with a wide range of stakeholders in a transparent consultation process.
The main goal of the consultation meeting was to collect feedback from the participating stakeholders on the recently issued first draft of the ‘CEWASTE Requirements for Improving CRM Recycling from WEEE & Waste Batteries’. There were nearly 50 participants and the project partners were very pleased with the contributions and incisive debate that was evident throughout the room.
Following the consultation meeting, the project held a workshop, as part of the WRF Conference, in which gathered more than 30 participants. After the review of the outcomes of the Consultation Meeting held the day before, the audience was asked to provide recommendations for advancing CRM recovery. Among others, the importance of awareness raising for both industry and public, import taxation and redesign of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) fees were highlighted.
