SECTORS AND GREEN SKILLS

The main sectors involved in the piloting phase will be the Wood, Agrofood, Building and Manufacturing. At least 3 key green skills in each selected sector will be processed with the micro-credentials process. The 13-pilot target will involve at least 100 workers or students (5EQF) coming from Italy, Spain, Finland, Bulgaria, and Belgium.

ACR+ ROLE

The role of ACR+ regarding an increased impact of green micro-credential will be to make links between the know-how and needs of the public, private and VET structural and functional systems, enhance their mutual interest, and help them collaborating to develop common policies on activating the micro-credentials in green skills which are crucial to competitiveness in Europe.
ACR+ will play a prominent role in developing stakeholders’ consultations with the different aims of elaborating a joint multi-stakeholder policy on the different phases of design, delivery, certification and portability of MCs and consolidating the results by activating start-ups working group at local, regional, national and EU level, engaged in the grounding of policy recommendations.
ACR+ will also support activities linked to collecting data from the PAs, the dissemination and exploitation of quality and impact criteria of MCs.

PARTNERS INVOLVED

MASTERY project leader is SFC - Sistemi Formativi Confindustria (IT)* and its project partners are:

• ACR+, Association of Cities and Regions for Sustainable Resource Management (BE)
• Scuola Superiore Di Studi Universitari E Di Perfezionamento S Anna (IT)*
• Cleantech Bulgaria (BG)
• Konfederatsia na rabotodatelite I industrialtsite v Bulgaria - krib Glasat na balgarskia biznes (BG)
• CETEM - Asociacion Empresarial de Investigacion Centro Tecnologico del Mueble y La Madera de la Region de Murcia (ES)
• Agrupacion Empresarial Innovadora de Fabricantes de Muebles y Afines de la Region de Murcia (ES)
• Pyhajarvi-Instituuttisaatio Stiftelsen (FI)

*ACR+ members

EXTENDED PRODUCER RESPONSIBILITY

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is a policy approach in which the producer's responsibility for managing the product and reducing its environmental impact is extended across the whole life cycle of the product - from the selection of materials and design of the product to its end-of-life, especially regarding take-back, recycling and disposal. The overall objectives of EPR include:

• Integration of environmental costs;
• Improved waste management;        
• Reduction of disposal;         
• Reduction of the burden on municipalities;       
• Design of environmentally sound products.    

EPR is an application of the Polluter Pays Principle. The polluter is not necessary the person whose activities give rise to pollution, but rather the economic agent that plays a decisive role in the pollution, like the producer, rather than the polluter himself.

The producers have primary responsibility under EPR, but sharing responsibilities across the product chain is an inherent part of EPR. While the policy tool is called Extended Producer Responsibility, it should be borne in mind that all actors in the product chain and in society must participate in order to optimise its effects.

ACTIVITIES

A combination of networking events and web-based activities allows the exchange of information and views amongst EPR Club members, political institutions and other stakeholders.

The EPR Club regularly holds lunch debates on specific topics decided by its members. These are mainly intended for the internal debate among the members. In some cases representatives of the European institutions and other external participants are invited.

The Club also organises bigger international events adressing a broader audience and generally open to all interested stakeholders.

In addition, the EPR Club website and the online Virtual Library represent the main communication and reference tools for members.

MEMBERS

EPR Club co-founders come from all over Europe:

• ACR+, Association of Cities and Regions for Sustainable Resource Management (BE)
• ARC, Agència de Residus de Catalunya – Catalan Waste Agency (ES)
• AICA (IT)
• Brussels Environment, Brussels-Capital Region (BE)
• Fundación para la EconomÍa Circular (ES)
• Rudologia (FR)

ACR+ members have full access to all activities of the EPR Club.

Since its creation, the EPR Club has constantly grown in size and scope. At present it forms a real multi-stakeholder platform, including members from public and private sector, as well as NGOs and academics. Considering this evolution, today the EPR Club is guided by a set of governance rules which has to be agreed by any new member.

Check out the complete list of the EPR Club members on our website.

NEWS AND EVENTS

EPR Club latest News

EPR Club previous Event

ACTIVITIES

ACR+ researched and collected good composting practices in the European Union and organised three fields visits to some of these best practices. The study visits each focused on one specific topic that has been identified as a key issue in the needs analysis conducted by Bugday:

• rural/agricultural areas;
• touristic areas;
• urban areas.

Furthermore, ACR+ analysed composting practices and prepared a handbook for local governments on composting which included best practices, how-to information and further resources.
ACR+ also provided support to the dissemination and promotion activities conducted as well as to the organisation of the final conference, held in Turkey in January 2017.

PARTNERS INVOLVED

Turkey Composts! project was coordinated by BUGDAY (Bugday Association for Supporting Ecological Living), and carried on in partnership with ACR+.

A COLLABORATIVE APPROACH AT WORK

The project developed, tested and applied new and modern ways of working, and demonstrated direct interventions to assess and target illegality in waste streams. The innovative aspect lied in the “collaborative approach”, where environmental bodies set intelligence and investigatory objectives using common tools around shared areas of concern, then together identify and tackle illegality.

For certain interventions, collaborations involved non-environmental bodies, such as the police, customs or financial authorities.

RECOMMENDATIONS

The project’s findings led to a number of recommendations that could assist EU Member States and UK administrations with efforts to address and reduce waste crime. Key themes for the project’s recommendations are: Mandatory electronic waste tracking; Consistent waste carrier registration requirements; and Consolidation of enforcement best practice.

A brochure summarises the recommendations, together with the project’s objectives and outputs.

The detailed recommendations are gathered in three reports providing context and justifications for the project’s recommendations at EU, national (UK) and local (Scotland) levels.

They are available only upon request to policy makers, legislators and other interested parties. To access these resources, please e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

REPORT ON GLOBAL PLASTIC WASTE

INTERPOL published an open-source strategic analysis report on global plastic waste management that highlights an alarming increase in illegal plastic pollution trade across the world since 2018.

Funded by the LIFE SMART Waste project, the report indicates that there has been a considerable increase over the past two years in illegal waste shipments, primarily rerouted to South-East Asia via multiple transit countries to camouflage the origin of the waste shipment.

RESOURCES

Key resources developed by the project are available until May 2025 on the project’s website.

In particular, the LIFE SMART Waste's capacity-building resources can be used to help predict emerging criminality in waste markets, detect problematic waste operators and enable more effective collaboration to address waste crime.

The project’s work is explained also through videos, available here. A video of the final conference is also available.

PARTNERS

The coordinator of this project was the Scottish Environment Protection Agency. It also included the following partners:

• ACR+, Association of Cities and Regions for Sustainable Resource Management (BE)
• Brussels Environment* (BE)
• Natural Resources Wales (UK)
  
  * ACR+ member