The Congress is the most important of its kind in southern Europe

We have a challenge: To reach the 2020 and 2030 objectives laid out in the framework of the legislative package of the circular economy: by 2020, 50% of municipal waste should be recycled and that figure should be 65% by 2030. For that reason we are creating a new space of dialogue and growth, where we will soon be joined by new promoters of environmental development in our country.

During the first three editions, the importance of the existence of a place where the necessities of waste treatment in Spain can be rigorously and clearly presented, demonstrated and explained through the presence and testimonies of     multi-disciplinary experts from all over the world, was confirmed.

The conclusion is that waste-to-energy continues to be one of the best technical and environmental solutions to the problem of the management of the non-       recoverable waste fraction, and the only valid way forward as final treatment which can be understood in the future context of a circular economy.

Three years after the publication of the EU Framework Directive on waste, the same year as its implementation in our country, the debate about the necessities to develop more and better treatment installations in Spain was initiated at RECUWATT.

We are now facing the following problems: the consequences of slow development of our policies on the subject of waste management; the difficulties in reaching the objectives of 2016 and 2020; and the urgent need to plan with a view to 2030. We are, however, fully aware that the responsibility in terms of production, collection, recovery and treatment of waste doesn’t only fall to state policies which can appear voluntary, but clearly to each autonomous region through municipal management. In response, RECUWATT, in this new 2016 edition, has decided to widen its scope of action, working in and for the complete professional cycle of waste management.

We therefore enter a new phase, one where this space for exchange among professionals, promoted by the Maresme Consortium for Waste Treatment, together with the Waste Agency of Catalonia and the Department of Sustainability and Territory of the Generalidad of Catalonia, is strengthened at the organizational level by the Environmental Forum Foundation and the Vallès Oriental Waste Consortium.

We are going to share experience and knowledge to strengthen our sector.

In addition, to complete the full cycle of responsibility in waste management, Aquiara Participa Social has suggested we create a movement of social implication, one that raises awareness and invites participation from every member of the public in our country, both for the work professionals in our sector do, as well as to underline the responsibility and relevance of meeting these objectives. At the end of the day, it is in our hands, but we need your help.