The Retracking project, which ends in February 2020, is approaching its final stage. On 29 November 2019, the final project conference was held at the Slovenian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Ljubljana, where the main achievements of the project and prospects for future work in the management of GFRP and other plastic waste were presented in the light of the waste hierarchy.
In Europe, 60 million tonnes of clean raw materials are consumed annually for the production of plastic products. Approximately half of these products are collected at the end of their life as waste and either processed (by material recovery or recycling), thermally treated or landfilled. With such quantities of plastic waste, we face major challenges globally at reducing waste generation, where the waste hierarchy requires an extension of product life, maintenance and reuse.
Where waste generation cannot be avoided, plastic waste is returned to the material flow by appropriate recovery or recycling. Proper waste collection is of crucial importance in this recovery process. The purpose of the Final Retracking Conference was to present potential solutions for the proper treatment of plastic and composite waste, especially that containing fiberglass, which is estimated at 80 tonnes in Europe and is increasing annually.
The conference was attended by over 70 experts in the field of environment and waste management, representatives of companies where waste is produced in the manufacturing process of products (such as vessels, aircraft, construction products, sports equipment, sanitary equipment), users of such products, waste collectors and processors, and other interested public from the Interreg Italy – Slovenia programme area and beyond. The participants shared their experience and discussed the solutions that are most suitable for waste treatment in their local environment. The conference was held in the Slovene and Italian language.
The materials from the conference are available at: https://www.gzs.si/skupne_naloge/varstvo_okolja/Novice/ArticleId/73658/gradiva-z-zakljucne-konference-projekta-retracking-plastika-in-kompoziti-v-hierarhiji-ravnanja-z-odpadki
Operation co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund
