During October 19 and 20 an International Zero Waste meeting took place in Cluj Napoca, Romania. This was the first event to
promote Zero Waste in the country and
it succeeded in bringing together national and local stakeholders
including activists, waste experts and operators, ecodesign specialists,
city planners and architects, public authorities, policy-makers with
the participation of international observers.
The meeting set p solid grounds for collaboration between all the
main stakeholders in order to create long term sustainable change. In
this context, the waste industry and policy-makers took note of the
importance of moving towards a closed-loop circular economy.
Representatives of the
Green Building Council showed
very practical examples of how to reuse construction materials in
renovations or new buildings, especially the importance of using
toxic-free materials thinking about the deconstruction process.
Local organisations showed how it is possible to have a zero waste
catering with products sourced from the region following also the km0and
sustainable approach.
Also, other enterpreneurial activities were presented. For instance a new
Romanian start-up company called trezy
presented its reusable nappies locally produced and chemical and
plastic-free which will save more than one ton landfills per new-born in
the region.
During
the meeting it was highlighted the fact that despite the low recycling
rates, Romania, and especially the region of Cluj-Napoca with only 700gr
of waste generate per person per day, is more sustainable than many
northern countries that might recycle more in percentage but generate
more than twice as much waste per person. Therefore, the challenge for
Central and Eastern Europe is about increasing reuse, composting and
recycling as much as it is keeping -and reducing!- the low levels of
waste generation.
As a result of the meeting some Zero Waste pilot projects will be
proposed for Romania and it was established good colaboration between
the network of Transition Towns, Permaculture, Green Building as well as
with the University of Cluj-Napoca and some pioneer companies.
The presentations of the meeting can be found
here.
