Green Forum ABC - SIGAUS y GENCI
SIGAUS Y GENCI at the ABC Forum #GreenForum on EPR in Spain
Eduardo de Lecea, Managing Director of SIGAUS Y GENCI, attended the event that Spanish newspaper ABC organised last Friday, 9 June, to analyse the “State of Play of Extended Producer Responsibility in Spain”. At the ABC Forum #GreenForum, Eduardo de Lecea spoke about how SIGAUS's 16 years of experience as an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) system in the used oil sector served as the cornerstone for creating GENCI, the new SEPRS that has been managing commercial and industrial packaging in the Balearic Islands for two years and is now poised for operations throughout Spain.
14-06-2023
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During the #GreenForum, moderated by journalist Alberto Velázquez, Eduardo de Lecea mentioned that SIGAUS had anticipated the Spanish Waste and Contaminated Soil Act when it created GENCI two years ago “to meet a requirement of the Balearic government that would bind our member companies to manage commercial and industrial packaging in the Balearic Islands”.
Eduardo de Lecea pointed out that the new SEPRS (Shared Extended Producer Responsibility System) was originally set up to address lubricant packaging in the Balearic Islands, although following the publication of Royal Decree 1055/2022 on packaging and packaging waste, GENCI (Spanish acronym for Gestión de Envases Comerciales e Industriales) is now ready to operate across Spain, managing commercial and industrial packaging from any sector, for which it submitted its request for authorisation in the Community of Madrid on 25 May.
The SIGAUS Y GENCI managing director attended the event with other heads of Shared Extended Producer Responsibility Systems (SEPRS), including ECOEMBES, ECOLEC (joint organiser of the forum, together with ABC), SIGNUS and the ENVALORA project. He highlighted how we are now looking at a “new concept of how we consume”, as our consumption shifts from linear to a more holistic understanding of a product's entire life cycle. Under extended producer responsibility “producers will start thinking about the product at the design stage. They are thus expected to close the loop and ensure that their waste is properly managed and financed, taking responsibility for the waste and responding to the polluter pays principle”.
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During his talk, Eduardo de Lecea pointed out that GENCI has been managing commercial and industrial packaging in the Balearic Islands for two years, and has already applied for authorisation to operate nationally.
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Eduardo de Lecea noted that “extended producer responsibility now covers a number of previously unmanaged sectors” such as commercial and industrial packaging, and that “projects are already underway to address EPR in tobacco and textiles”.
As society and consumers move towards greater environmental awareness, manufacturers have “developed products that are more environmentally competitive, less polluting and easier to handle in terms of managing the waste they generate”. The SIGAUS Y GENCI managing director also explained that customers in the lubricants sector are also “calling for lubricants formulated with regenerated bases, thus precluding the consumption of raw materials in the first refining process” or manufactured “with low sulphur content” to reduce CO2 emissions into the atmosphere.
The public sector's role in SEPRS authorisations
Cristina Aparicio, Director General of Circular Economy of the Community of Madrid, also attended ABC's #GreenForum. Aparicio underlined the role of Madrid's public administration in SEPRS authorisation, since legislation requires them to apply to the Autonomous Community where they have their registered office, which means that the vast majority of SEPRS will have to follow the example of GENCI and apply for it in the Community of Madrid.
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All the speakers at the forum agreed on how important EPR was in controlling certain waste streams and acknowledged the challenging awareness-raising task that lies ahead, as many producers and companies affected by the commercial and industrial packaging regulation are still unaware of how it affects them and their corresponding obligations. This is especially relevant for SMEs, as they are not yet familiar with the concept of extended liability and have neither the staff nor the training to cope with this legal obligation. The media also has a key role in this context to help the concept permeate society as a whole.
Participants at the event also discussed their views on the ambitious environmental targets of the European Union, but said that Spain is well on the way to achieving them. Nevertheless, their achievement hinges on a common understanding and coordination among the new SEPRS in commercial and industrial packaging, since these targets are set at an overall country level, not within individual SEPRS.
In this regard, in order to face the coming challenges and move forward, digitalisation and waste traceability will prove to be crucial in ensuring compliance with the law. Eduardo de Lecea pointed out that SIGAUS, which has been managing used industrial oil in Spain for 16 years, has just “created a digital transformation division to continue working on the potential of data management”. The head of SEPRS stressed the importance of having a technological information system not only capable of recording the vast amounts of data generated in each waste collection operation (which will multiply exponentially in commercial and industrial packaging) but also compatible with public sector data management tools such as the ESIR and SIRA platforms.