49 Destacado-Imagen-XV Congreso APIA
SIGAUS explains to environmental journalists how its management protects water resources
The 15th National Environmental Journalism Congress focused on water, addressing the main issues related to access to this natural resource that addressing the main issues regarding access to this natural resource, essential for life on our planet. This year’s Congress, organised by the Association of Environmental Information Journalists (APIA), was held at the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid. Under the slogan ‘Water counts’, the two-day event analysed the challenges and conflicts facing water protection in today's society, and how the media communicates this issue to Spanish society.
27-11-2023
24 Párrafo - XV Congreso APIA
As part of its effort to inform and communicate through the media the importance of moving towards a more circular economy, SIGAUS and GENCI collaborated with the 15th APIA National Congress of Environmental Journalism, which was very well received by journalists, companies and public institutions.
The Head of Institutional Relations and Communication at SIGAUS and GENCI, Ainhöa Lizarbe, was in charge of presenting the case study entitled ‘From industrial oil to packaging: how the RAP contributes to protecting water resources’. In her speech, Lizarbe stressed that ‘a single litre of oil can contaminate a million litres of water’, so the importance of SIGAUS’s work in the collection and management of waste oil in our country is especially important in protecting this natural resource.
32 Párrafo-cita - XV Congreso APIA
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SIGAUS’s waste oil management prevents this potentially polluting waste from coming into contact with water.
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Ainhöa Lizarbe pointed out that waste oil is a type of waste generated throughout Spain, and that one of the main challenges and values of SIGAUS' work is to guarantee collection at all points of the territory, including in the areas surrounding water resources —such as rivers, reservoirs or lakes— as well as in areas sensitive to eutrophication, preventing this potentially dangerous waste from coming into contact with the water.
During her speech, the Head of Institutional Relations and Communication at SIGAUS and GENCI emphasised the importance of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), a legal tool obliging manufacturers and importers who put products on the market that are going to generate waste to take responsibility for them. In this regard, she highlighted the creation of a new collective system, GENCI, to provide a service to companies that put products on the market using commercial and industrial packaging, guaranteeing the proper management of a type of waste that can also be a pollutant for the aquatic environment.
24 Párrafo - XV Congreso APIA (2)
Joaquín Araújo, a naturalist and writer and one of the founders of APIA, closed the second day of the congress by extolling the virtues of water in a poetic speech full of metaphors, affirming that ‘the first property of water is that it cannot be owned by anyone’.
To conclude, María García de la Fuente, president of APIA, presented the Vía Apia award to Teachers for Future Spain, for its ‘commitment and work in bringing the importance of information education to the journalistic agendas’. This group of teachers is concerned about the state of the climate emergency, and carries out numerous environmental awareness-raising activities in schools to make students aware of the importance of taking care of nature.