RLG Americas supports implementation of a Circular Economy in Argentina

In a German-Argentinian conference titled “Towards Circular Economy in Waste Management“, Daniel Ott from RLG Americas was invited to share RLG’s ideas and thoughts on how to implement Circular Economy principles in waste management. RLG Americas runs take-back schemes for end-of-life electronic hardware in Colombia, Mexico and Peru already helping producers to comply both with their legal take-back obligation in addition to facilitating their voluntary take-back activities. First projects to implement similar Circular Economy business models in Argentina are just about to be launched.

The conference, organized by the Argentinian Ministry of Environment, supported by GIZ (German Agency for International Cooperation) and AHK Argentina (German Chamber of Commerce) was held on December 2 in Buenos Aires. Attendees and speakers were from private sector, public sector or academic institutions.

Luis Lehmann, director of the National Directorate of Integral Waste Management was confirming the countries will to transform Argentina’s economy further towards a Circular Economy: "Circular economy is already a reality in many companies in the country, therefore, we do not believe that the discussion is about whether to implement or not implement a Circular Economy, but we must ask how we, from a governmental perspective, can support a transition to this new paradigm.”

A national law that introduces a legal take-back obligation for producers of electronic equipment has been discussed in Argentina for many years already and is expected to come into effect in later 2017 or 2018. Up to now, only five provinces in Argentina have an e-waste regulation in place.