UPDATE: presentations are available here.
During two days, on 16 and 17 of October, more than 100 practitioners from different countries and different organisations and institutions met in Bucharest at the invitation of the Romania National Environmental Guard for the 2019 Waste & TFS Conference.
On the 1st day of the conference there were updates from partner organisations, namely from the Basel Convention, the European Commission DG ENV, the EU Forum of Judges for the Environment (EUFJE) and from the Asian Collaboration Network, with the speakers focusing on the status quo, identified gaps on Waste & TFS legislation and implementation and future challenges for all parties involved.
The Project Managers from the Waste & TFS Expert Team and the Project Managers from the IMPEL Partnership Projects (SWEAP, SPIDER WEB and WasteForce) delivered presentations about the developments and outcomes of the projects they are managing.
The were 6 parallel Workshops split into 2 sessions giving the Conference Participants the opportunity to engage, discuss and share practices from their countries about plastic waste management and about different case studies that were shared. The Workshop leaders reported back to the entire audience the key points and main findings of each Workshop.
On the 2nd day there were presentations from the hosts on how Waste & TFS Inspections are done in Romania followed by examples of Judicial Practice in the Context of Prosecution in Cases for the Illegal Disposal of Waste. Several presentations on different approaches to plastic recycling were much appreciated by the audience.
The conference was closed by Marina de Gier (former Waste & TFS Expert Team Leader), Simonne Rufener (present Waste & TFS Expert Team Leader) and Florin Homorean (Romania National Environmental Guard). All pointed out that there are challenges that lie ahead, however there is will power to work together in order to overcome them.