The Minister of Environment and Climate Action acknowledged this Friday that Portugal “is lagging behind” in terms of waste management, considering that the update, “soon”, of the national strategy in this area will allow the country to achieve the objectives set .
“We are, in terms of waste, with goals that are far from what the objectives were. It is true, there is work to be done, we are behind, we are aware that it is an area in which we have a lot of work to do, but we are committed and we want to believe that, with the strategy that will be published and with the incentives that, in the meantime, we are trying to improve, we are going to, once and for all, try to find a way to achieve these goals”, said Duarte Cordeiro in Porto, on the sidelines of the signing of the “Green Pact for Portuguese Footwear”.
Commenting on the statements made on Thursday, in the Portuguese parliament, by the European Commissioner responsible for the Environment, Oceans and Fisheries portfolio, Virginijus Sinkevicius, who considered that Portugal must increase recycling capacity and improve waste management, the minister admitted that the evaluation of the decade from the point of view of OECD environmental policies converges in the sense that “Portugal, in terms of waste, is lagging behind.”
“It is true, it is a fact”, he acknowledged, assuming a special concern for the volume of waste that goes to landfill: “We have a very high percentage in our country and we have a goal of 10% in 2035 and we are very far away, we are close 56%,” he said.
Duarte Cordeiro stressed, however, that he is “at this moment in the legislative circuit”, due to the “soon” presentation of a “update of the national waste strategy“.
“I hope that it will allow us to introduce an updated path for the objectives that we intend to achieve, the infrastructures that we need to implement and a work methodology that we want the different waste treatment sectors in Portugal to have and that will allow us to reach convergence once and for all. towards these goals,” he explained.
According to the minister, the “strategic objectives” are to increase the recycling of bio-waste (or organic waste) and make better use of the waste produced in the different industrial sectors.
Regarding organic waste, what is intended is “achieve, at the municipal level, the capacity to have, economicallythe structures that allow the collection and removal of this waste”, in order to reduce the volume of waste that goes to landfill.
At an industrial level, the objective is “to understand what can be done to make better use of the waste from the different sectors of activity as a source of energy, “instead of importing waste from other countries for the same purpose”.
Finally, Duarte Cordeiro referred to the need to “make better use of the country’s infrastructures”, using them “regionally, shared, among various treatment systems.”
“For all this to work,” the official said that adequate “economic incentives” are necessary, that is, that allow “mayors will be able to invest in the collection of bio-waste and so that the treatment systems have financial conditions to invest in technology and infrastructure to improve that same treatment”.
Regarding the municipalities, the minister considered that “those who achieve the objectives must be supported” by not increasing the fees they pay and returning part of the environmental fees they charge, so that they can finance the collection of bio-waste.
“That is all that will be included in the strategy and we are also working with the National Association of Municipalities, but also with the various waste treatment systems in Portugal, so that we can increase the goals”, he emphasized.
The European commissioner responsible for the Environment, Oceans and Fisheries portfolio considered this Thursday, in the Portuguese parliament, that Portugal must increase recycling capacity and improve waste management.
Virginijus Sinkevicius spoke at a joint parliamentary hearing between the European Affairs Committee, the Environment and Energy Committee and the Agriculture and Fisheries Committee, at the Assembly of the Republic, in Lisbon.
“I really appreciate that they are working on a new circular economy plan. I advise you to do everything possible to increase this recycling capacity. I see that more efforts are needed to improve waste management and take more advantage of circularity”, he said.
The European commissioner also said that he hoped that Portugal supports the law of healthy soils that the community executive intends to present for the protection of this natural resource.
“In the coming months we will propose a healthy soil law so that this precious resource has the same protection as water and air. Portugal has been supporting our previous efforts on soils and I sincerely hope to have your support with these efforts of ours,” he said.
Virginijus Sinkevicius stressed that the proposal is part of the European Union’s goal of strengthening protections, which also includes forest monitoring.
Source: Observadora
