The Minister of the Environment, Cristina Narbona, will chair tomorrow the inauguration of the First National Conference on Waste Prevention, which will be held in Madrid on 5 and 6 April. The Minister will be joined by the Director of the European Environment Agency, Jacqueline McGlade and the Secretary General for the Prevention of Pollution and Climate Change, Arturo Gonzalo Aizpiri.

More than six hundred participants from institutions of the general, regional and community administrations (European Environment Agency, DG Environment) and from other States (United States, Germany, Denmark, Andorra, Portugal), business and employers’ organisations, trade unions, NGOs and students, linked to waste prevention, will meet to discuss waste prevention policy.

The Conference has been designed with plenaries and working groups. The first will address issues such as planning itself, economic instruments, environmental technologies or participation. For their part, the working groups are technically specialised in certain waste streams (biodegradable, hazardous, electrical, electronic, etc.) and in the analysis of waste management alternatives and the treatment hierarchy.