Regional Government departments produce less waste

Several Regional Government departments are producing less waste, which demonstrates the success of the measures implemented under the Plager.GOV.
The information was provided by the Regional Director for the Environment, João Bettencourt, on the sidelines of a meeting of the Monitoring Committee of Plager.GOV – Waste Management Plan for the Regional Autonomous Administration Services – held on the island of Faial on Thursday.
Implemented in October 2006, the Plager.GOV aims to reduce the amount and dangerousness of the waste produced by the Regional Government departments as well as to ensure their appropriate destination.
According to the Regional Director for the Environment, this meeting, which takes place at the premises of the Faial Botanical Garden, was organised with the purpose of analysing the project and boosting this initiative.
Moreover, waste management is a strong commitment of the Regional Secretariat for the Environment and the Sea as evidenced by the ongoing investment in the construction of waste centres on Flores, Corvo and Graciosa, the three Azorean islands included in the Biosphere Reserve, mentioned João Bettencourt.
The Regional Director also reminded the financial effort undertaken by the Regional Government will also be extended to the remaining islands of the archipelago next year as the Regional Annual Plan for 2011 will approximately allocate 17.2 million Euros to waste management in the archipelago.
The Monitoring Committee of Plager.GOV will discuss the good environmental practices implemented in all governmental departments in order to improve the environmental performance of the Regional Autonomous Administration, its workers and contractors on waste matters.
In the context of this event, a technical visit is scheduled to the waste sorting centre in Horta with the purpose of making known what happens to waste after being place on recycling posts for subsequent recycling.
The Plager.GOV establishes a set of rules to regulate the management of waste produced by the various departments of the Regional Government of the Azores.
It also aims to identify the management operations for each type of waste, define the registration of produced waste, raise the workers’ awareness and promote training courses.
Each service will be provided with a specific operational plan, which stipulates the identification of produced waste, the procedures for its reduction, recovery, disposal as well as the appropriate registration of the waste produced by the services involved.