Validating Argentina’s recycling efforts

With hundreds of millions practicing it around the globe, recycling is no longer a novel concept. However, those who recycle with the best intentions but no real understanding of the divergent practices that currently exist in the recycling industry, risk generating waste contamination.

In Argentina, the Basel Convention Regional Center for South America (CRBAS) is working on bridging these gaps in understanding through the development of a project that will align recycling industry practices and bolster public trust in the recycling process. On 14 December 2021, CRBAS launched a protocol, which certifies that plastic recycling plants meet and operate under the same specific, high quality, environmental standards.

Supported by the National Institute of Industrial Technology (INTI), and the Argentine Chamber of the Plastic Recycling Industry (CAIRPLAS), the Protocol for the Certification of Recycling Industries of Plastic Materials aims to improve the environmentally sound management of plastic waste.  To further support the project’s uptake and implementation, CRBAS is also developing training workshops for auditors, and organizing certification audits throughout the country to award the INTI/CAIRPLAS seal.

If the protocol is met with a positive response in Argentina, there are plans to replicate in other Latin American and Caribbean countries. The overall project falls under the Basel Convention’s Small Grants Program on Plastic Waste, implemented worldwide by the Regional Centers of the Basel and Stockholm Conventions, and funded by the Norwegian government development agency, Norad.

More information on the launch of the Protocol for the Certification of Recycling Industries of Plastic Materials is available here.