Business Community and Sustainable Waste Management webinar

On 12 June, 2020, the American Chamber of Commerce in Armenia Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) Committee Waste Management Working Group, the American University of Armenia (AUA) Acopian Center for the Environment European Business Association Armenia (EBA), and Union of Manufacturers and Business of Armenia (UMBA) jointly organized a Business Community and Sustainable Waste Management webinar.
The webinar is part of the initiative started by AmCham’s FMCG Committee Waste Management Working Group, the aim is to raise awareness and encourage the Armenian business community to meet its environmental obligations, including the EU-Armenia Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA).
During the webinar, business chambers, industry representatives and international organizations discussed what the business community can do to promote a sustainable waste management agenda in Armenia and presented an action plan.
Karine Sarkissian, the executive director of AmCham, and Alen Amirkhanian, the director of AUA Acopian Center for the Environment, gave welcome remarks. Harutyun Alpetyan, the circular economy expert at the AUA Acopian Center for the Environment, presented the RA legislation and management systems for packaging and other business waste, such as EPR, voluntary-based systems, and others. Elina Markaryan, the vice president of AmCham, and Alexander Babaskin, the regulatory affairs manager at BU Ukraine CCHBC, spoke about the business communities’ approaches to sustainable waste management systems, the importance of raising awareness on those systems, and the Ukrainian experience. The webinar was concluded with a question and answer session. The decision was made to continue the cooperation between the business chambers, business community, and public sector.
It is worth to mention that in October 2019, the AmCham Committee on Fast Moving Consumer Goods organized an open discussion on the exchange of international experience on solid waste management, during which the leading experts presented the best experience for Armenia in creating a responsible business environment between the state and the private sector.