The Secretary of State for the Environment, María García Rodríguez, stressed today in Logroño, coinciding with World Recycling Day, that the development of the Spanish Circular Economy Strategy, on which the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Food and the Environment is already working, will be key to adopting a more sustainable production model.

This was pointed out at the inauguration of the Circular Economy Laboratory (“The Circular Lab“), a project promoted by Ecoembes in the capital of La Rioja that seeks to promote lines of innovation in the field of packaging and its subsequent recycling.

The Spanish Circular Economy Strategy on which the Ministry is working will devote special attention to horizontal lines of action, such as those aimed at promoting, among others, technological innovation in production processes, green public procurement, the use of the European Ecolabel or the Community Eco-Management and Audit System (EMAS).

It will also promote eco-design as a basic element of the circular economy, in which the product is conceived to facilitate its reuse, recycling and reduce the danger of its components, once its useful life has ended.

The aim is to change the current linear economic model (extract-manufacture-consume-discard) and move towards a circular one, in which resources remain in the production cycle for a long time, with minimal waste generation and with the maximum use of what is produced.

In addition, thanks to the Empleaverde Programme and the Emprendeverde Network , the creation of new lines of business will be promoted in areas such as sustainable mobility, ecological products, or energy saving and efficiency, among others. The new edition of the Empleaverde Programme will create more than 4,800 jobs and 6,000 people will improve their position in the labour market. More than 3,000 entrepreneurs will receive support for the creation and/or improvement of their company and 24,000 people will obtain a qualification in areas related to the environment and innovation.