Presentation about the implementation at Kliimaministeerium in Estonia

The meeting was organized by the representatives of the Estonian Ministry of Climate with the aim to bring together relevant stakeholders to discuss the implementation options of requirements on extended producers’ responsibility in the Single Use Plastic Directive (EU) 2019/904 (SUP directive).  

Because of the Directive, fishing gear and parts containing plastic will henceforth be considered as problem products and will be subject to extended producer responsibility. Extended producer responsibility means that the manufacturer or the person who places them on the market is responsible for the collection and treatment of the products he has placed on the market. The Regulation will enter into force on 31.12.2024. 

Interreg CB project Re:Fish was also introduced in the meeting and short presentation was given about the general activities and targets of the project by Anneliis Kõivupuu from UTARTU EMI. Re:Fish project goals in the coming years are the following in the SUP directive topic: i) establish the recommendations of actions needed for retailers and producers alike to fulfil their obligations of the SUP directive, and ii) recommendations on a cooperative framework between retailers, consumers and waste management service providers. As the project WP2 objectives are in the same line with the ministry ones then further collaboration on this SUP directive topic seems the only logical way where project and ministry people can work together side by side to find the best solutions.  

This was the first stakeholder’s joint discussion in this topic and still many questions remained. However, the general aim was to start the discussion and introduce the background of this directive for retailers, producers, and waste managers. New joint discussions will be held in the future to continue with the discussion with the aim of finding the best answers for the questions that stayed unanswered this time.