Section

The Take-Back conference

The 2009 Take-Back conference was attended by almost 500 participants

The 2009 Take-Back international conference was held at the Corinthia Towers hotel in Prague on Wednesday, May 19. It was attended by almost 500 participants from amongst representatives of cities and towns, producers, importers and dealers of electrical and electronic equipment, collective systems and waste management companies. The morning plenary program, which included five main lectures, was followed after lunch by three workshops concerned with topical subjects (amendment of the EU Directive on waste electrical and electronic equipment, take-back of batteries and accumulators, take-back of tires and oils, recycling of end-of-life vehicles). The conference ended with a joint panel discussion.

The 2009 Take-Back conference brought the following conclusions:

Municipalities consider that cooperation with the collective systems established by producers is functional and effective – they are not interested in changing this system
Producers request equal conditions also on the Czech market – they expect the State to perform control work, identifying fictitious compliance with the legal duties and imposing penalties
Strong collective systems are a partner for the State even during an economic crisis and are capable of providing for the functioning of take-back and coming to terms with market fluctuations
The future belongs to strong collective systems and their consistent control by the State

Participants in the conference particularly praised the excellent program of the conference, interesting lectures and also the commendable organization of the entire event, with good correlation with the first conference in 2007. The third conference will be held in 2011.

Responses of the participants of the Conference:

Thank you for this very interesting and successful conference, with perfect organisation.
Thorsten Brunzema
Evropská komise, DG Environment

The program and the organisation of the conference was magnificent. Thank you for the invitation.
I am looking forward for the next year.
Jan Kristek, Executive
MARKETA - REMONE s.r.o.

Thank you very much for the invitation and for the excellent organisation.
Fanni Mészáros
CECED

Detiled conference agenda (pdf, 26 kB)

The 1st Take-Back conference - 2007

A one-day conference under the title Take-Back 2007 took place on Tuesday, June 19, 2007 in the Corinthia Towers hotel in Prague. The central theme consisted in the aspect of taking back packages, batteries, accumulators and EEE. The event, which was intended particularly for producers and importers, was organized by the ASEKOL, EKO-KOM, EKOLAMP and ECOBAT collective schemes. The conference took place under the auspices of the Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic and the Consumer Electronics Association.

"We have decided to organize a conference that would familiarize our partners as much as possible with our activities in the take-back sphere and present its results. Simultaneously, we wanted to offer the participants a platform for mutual sharing of opinions and experience, and provide both practical and legislative advice", explains Jan Vrba, the Executive of ASEKOL, the purpose of the event.

In addition to domestic collective schemes, experience was also presented by guests from Slovakia and Austria; furthermore, the event was also attended by representatives of the WEEE Forum, an organization associating European collective systems dealing with EEE. In addition to importers and exporters, an invitation to the conference was also accepted by the representatives of the central governmental authorities, regional and municipal authorities, control bodies and legislature.

Responses of the participants in the previous year of the Conference:

The 2009 Take-Back Conference is a follow-up of the 1st conference held in 2007, which was attended by almost 400 participants.

"Thank you for the invitation. I was honored to participate in your conference."
Pavel Drahovzal
Federation of Cities and Towns of the Czech Republic

"I would like to say that I was very impressed by the conference. Congratulations!"
Helmut Kolba
Managing Director of UFH (Austrian WEEE take back scheme)

"I liked the openness of the discussion as well as ideas on moving things forward."
Aurore Belfrage
Stena Technoworld AB, Göteborg

Detailed program of the 2007 Take-Back conference (pdf, 110 kB)

Video from the 2007 Take-Back conference (avi, 52 MB)