Circular Economy : “Waste must no longer be seen as an item without value”
UN Secretary General António Guterres recently established an Advisory Board of Eminent Persons on Zero Waste to which you have been appointed. Can you tell us about the role of the Advisory Board?
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) approved a resolution last December to promote zero waste initiatives to advance the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Under this resolution, the Member States asked the Secretary General of the United Nations to set up an advisory board of eminent persons, to be selected on the basis of their knowledge, experience and expertise in this matter.
The role of this Advisory Board will be to support the Secretary General in promoting initiatives related to raising awareness and delivering actions that enable waste reduction and sound management of waste in order to achieve the targets set by the SDGs.
Why is establishing such a board important?
The importance of having this Advisory Board is to bring together different capacities, experiences and backgrounds to join efforts towards a very relevant topic on the environmental agenda and to develop a collaborative programme to maximise zero waste initiatives, ensuring environmentally sound waste management and sustainable development for all.
We need to ensure the waste industry is considered as a key element to support the transition towards a circular economy and a cross-sectoral sector, able to assist other businesses to fulfil their environmental commitments.
Who else is on the board?
The board is composed of 13 people from different regions and backgrounds, who will develop a work programme together with the UN Secretary General Office and facilitated by UNEP and UN-Habitat in order to define the agenda and activities to reverse the current trend of accelerated waste generation increase and the existing deficit of adequate waste management systems.
How do you see your role on the Advisory Board?
I will try to contribute with my experience of almost 25 years of working in the waste field and with the sense that this is a unique opportunity to change the way we deal with and manage materials that are thrown out by society. It is very important to define the concept and scope of ‘zero waste’ in order to develop consistent actions and interventions that will be disseminated, replicated and will hopefully also be impactful.
What are the next important steps to take to tackle the waste problem?
We need to ensure the waste industry is considered as a key element to support the transition towards a circular economy and a cross-sectoral sector, able to assist other businesses to fulfil their environmental commitments.
There is also a necessity to change the perspective and prevailing paradigm that considers waste as an item without value or with a negative value. In that sense, bringing waste-related issues into the limelight can be instrumental in raising society’s awareness of the wide-ranging benefits of an environmentally sound waste management system.
