Ateliere Fara Frontiere alongside ECOTIC and RREUSE organized on March 19, 2015 the conference "Reuse and Recycle: Towards a Social and Circular Economy". The focus of the conference was the evolution of public policies and legislative framework in Romania, from the perspective of the European obligations and commitments Romania assumed in the field of social, circular economy and sustainable development.
Debates were honored by representatives of central public authorities, environmental NGOs, private companies and experts from the European network of social enterprises for reuse and recycle RREUSE, who gave many examples of European good practices.
Topics of discussion included the National Strategy for Waste Management, the National Strategy for Food Waste Reduction, the transposition of European directives regarding WEEE, the differentiating tax on selective collection and landfill disposal, the introduction of social and environmental clauses in public acquisitions and other environmental and fiscal regulations.
“We, at Ateliere Fara Frontiere, collect, test, reuse and recycle WEEE and advertising waste materials and we transform them into jobs for disadvantaged people, in refurbished equipment that are donated where they are so much needed, in new products and secondary raw materials through recycling! Starting from these local experiences we try to come up with proposals for integrated public policies at regional, national and European level ”said Patrick Ouriaghli, Director of AFF.
“With the launch of new technologies, some pieces of equipment become in some ways useless. Yet this equipment can make life easier for people in difficult situations and can contribute to the diminishing of social discrepancies. We are happy that through our partnership with Ateliere Fara Frontiere important quantities of refurbished computers reach communities. We are sure that a lot more can be done at the national level. ” Dragos Calugaru, General Director of ECOTIC
About Borderless Workshops:
Ateliere Fara Frontiere (AFF) is a Romanian non-profit association, a social enterprise for insertion that creates jobs for disadvantaged people in workshops of social economy, with the purpose of preparing these people for full social and professional reintegration on the conventional work market. In the WEEE workshop we reuse and recycle WEEE, and in the remesh workshop we manufacture bags, purses, conference folders out of street advertising waste. www.atelierefarafrontiere.ro
About RRESUSE:
RREUSE is a European umbrella organization for social enterprises in the fields of reuse, reparation and recycling. RREUSE members are national and European networks of social economy that combine social and environmental objectives. Approximately 77 employees and 000 volunteers and apprentices work within the 60 networks that make up RREUSE in000 EU member states + USA. RREUSE members share common values like the protection of the environment, services oriented towards solving community problems, the fight against poverty and social and professional insertion of disadvantaged persons. www.rreuse.org