Regional Workshop for Central and Eastern Europe 19-20 March 2019, Almaty, Kazakhstan
Friday, 29 March 2019
IPENers from ten countries participated in a regional workshop organized by UNEP on the theme of promoting regulatory and voluntary action by government and industry to phase out lead in paint. IPEN's work, together with its participating organizations, was highlighted throughout the workshop, including presentations of the role of civil society, paint studies conducted in the region and working with SMEs to facilitate the phase out of lead from paint. Activities to eliminate lead paint by Greenwomen in Kazakhstan and Mama-86 in Ukraine were also presented, along with with information shared from the floor by several IPEN POs. Group discussions during the second day of the workshop provided additional opportunities for IPENers to provide their experiences and expertise in order to develop national approaches mapping out how new regulations on lead paint could be adopted, or existing ones strengthened.
Non-combustion techniques for the destruction of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) waste such as PCBs, dioxins and brominated flame retardants are urgently needed to destroy the world's growing stockpile of materials contaminated with the most dangerous contaminants on earth. Using incineration and cement kilns to attempt to destroy POPs only leads to the generation of more unintentionally produced POPs (UPOPs) in their emissions and solid waste. This new technical briefing paper from IPEN describes non-combustion techniques that have been commercialised and proven for the destruction of POPs. They are also considered to be more readily applicable to developing countries due to their less intensive capital and infrastructure requirements.
Please note that some versions include track changes. Tracked changes were used to signal text proposals for the Co-Chairs’ paper. This was done so that people did not think the document was unfinished.