 It's my real pleasure to welcome you to FAO webinar managing empty pesticide containers protecting natural resources and farmers in Central Asia. You are very welcome. This is the second in a series of webinars being organized by FAO's regional office for Europe and Central Asia in the framework of Jeff FAO Projects on life cycle management of pesticide and disposal of pesticide in Central Asia countries in Turkey, which has a food system approach, considering that mismanagement of pesticide will affect not just productivity, but can also affect negatively natural resources, biodiversity, quality of food, food prices, therefore impacting the food security and the health of farmers and consumers. My name is Tania Santibanez. I am a agriculture officer in the regional office for Europe and Central Asia. I am very pleased to moderate today's webinar. The purpose of the webinar is to change information on the challenge to address when managing empty pesticide containers and on opportunities provided by the establishment of pesticide container management systems for the countries in Central Asia, Turkey, Caucasus and Eastern Europe. Let me share please some technical information, language option, English, Russian and Turkish interpretation, you can switch language by clicking in this one block, it comes in the bottom. We are respecting your question and comments in writing for this please use QA box and the bottom of your screen for sharing your question, please don't use the chat for this purpose. All presentation will be sent all of you as well as the recording of the event. 100 participants can be registered to this webinar. We are happy to have this quantity of participants. After this short technical introduction, let me inform you that the order of speakers presentation was adjusted slightly. Saying that, let me introduce Dr. Bahrain Wu, FAO Senior Agriculture Officer. Dr. Wu is a specialist in pest and pesticide management. He started to work on pesticide management in the Ministry of Agriculture and Zural Affairs in China in 1988. He was responsible for pesticide registration system in China from 2000 to 2014. He put an emphasis on national risk assessment and during this tenure, more than 20 high-law hazardous pesticides were facing out in China. Later on, Dr. Wu being deputy director of the China National Center for Quality and Safety of Agriculture products. He joined FAO in 2016 and has been responsible for pest and pesticide management. And he's acting as a team leader of pest and pesticide management in FAO's Plant Production and Protection Division. The floor is yours for opening remark and the first presentation. Daniel, Mr. Wu was just writing, I cannot hear you propose, go to the next presentation. Okay, okay. So the idea of the presentation on Mr. Wu was he wanted to share with us the FAO policies on empty pesticide container and how the empty pesticide container is based in the International Code for Conduct on Pesticide Management. So okay, later on we will come back to Mr. Wu and just I wanted to invite the, now we'll be the first speaker, Dr. Shayla Willis. Shayla is head of International Programs on Pesticide Action Network UK and she's an Honorary Senior Lecturer at the Division of Environmental Health in the School of Public Health and Family Medicine University of Cape Town. Where she teach part of the postgraduate diplomat in pesticide risk management. She is a doctoral student Shayla, to curate graduates in entomology and pest and disease at Oxford University before working in farmer's participatory research in Ethiopia and Kenya. In this assembly, she has been concerned with broader aspects of pesticide management and sustainable agriculture, mainly in East and West Africa, and several countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Caribbean. Shayla, the floor is yours please. Thanks very much Tanya. If you can give me one second I will share my screen and then we can. Great. Can you see my screen now? Great. Thank you. Good morning everybody and thanks for joining. I'm really pleased to join me here today. I gather we've got a good number of people in the webinar as well, which is, which is very pleasing. So thanks to all the organizers of this. I'm going to talk a bit about the work we've done at the farm level in relation to empty pesticide containers. I work for Pesticide Action Network as Tanya mentioned, and we tend to focus on the issues that relate directly to farmers. So we don't have expertise that go on the farm in terms of what happens to the containers, but we have quite a lot of information about what happens on the farm, which I'd like to share with you. I want to talk more broadly about the problem of plastic pollution in agriculture. An estimated 6.96 million tons of plastic is used in agriculture each year. But the scale of the problem caused by pesticide containers relative to other types of plastic in agriculture is difficult to estimate and those numbers are actually not very easy to obtain. Which is why we've done quite a lot of work at farm level on this. Plastics, as we know, cause animal deaths by choking, entanglement, starvation. And those problems have been shown already in at least 700 animal species, some of them endangered. And we're learning more about the subtle effects of plastics on human and animal health, including microplastics and the chemical additives that are used on them. Research is showing impacts on liver and cell damage and disruption to reproductive systems, for example. This is just from the plastic itself. I don't know if you can see my whole screen. The image on the right there shows how far plastics travel. They get washed down rivers into marine environments and they can be transported fast distances. The picture shows an iguana on the Galapagos Islands which were uninhabited surrounded by plastics. And on one remote uninhabited island, Henderson Island, in the middle of the Pacific, scientists have found plastics from Russia, the US, Europe, South America, Japan and China. So this is a global problem and one that doesn't, these plastics don't stay where you leave them unfortunately. So I'm just moving this around a bit. So to focus on pesticide containers in particular, of course they're a particular problem, because beyond the problems that the plastic itself causes, you've got hazardous contents caused by the pesticide residues inside. And those residues can cause significant problems with human poisoning and contamination of soils and water. Studies looking at the quantity of containers generated have been done in various places. I looked at one in Greece that was done in 2018 and of course the use, the generation of empty containers varies widely depending on the types of crop being grown and the context. But in this case, up to 35 pieces of plastic were being generated per hectare per year. And the mean weight of empty plastic pesticide containers per farmer was 4.36 kilograms. Well I've been at PAN, we've done similar surveys in Suriname for example among rice and vegetable farmers. We found a rather higher average of 6.56 kilograms of plastic per farmer per year generated. And 34.7 pieces of plastic on average per farmer per year. Plus foil sachets. We did a similar survey in Antigua and we found rather less, not surprisingly much smaller farms and less pesticide use but still a significant quantity of containers being generated. And unfortunately, empty containers are quite attractive because they're made of high quality plastic. So they can be attractive for other uses once someone's finished with the pesticide contents. And that can contaminate water and food that could be stored inside and result in hazardous exposure to these chemicals. In some countries I've been in it's quite common to purchase used pesticide containers at local markets. On the right you can see a market in Benin where a small child is playing with some of those empty containers. Surveys we did in the Ukraine and in Kyrgyzstan showed that in 2014 showed that 9% of the farmers we interviewed in Ukraine and 1% in Kyrgyzstan and Armenia were routinely reusing empty pesticide containers. Obviously for fuel or pesticides, but in some cases also for water or animal feed. And then those pesticides obviously can enter the food chain and cause human health hazards. A survey we did in Senegal some time ago now in 2010 revealed that 10% of empty pesticide containers were being reused for domestic purposes. And on the right shows, I think that was, sorry, that was Malaysia where empty containers are on sale. For water storage, again, a real hazard. Another hazard that comes in relation to containers is the repacking of pesticides. Often smallholder farmers only require a small amount of pesticide when they purchase it. And a common practice is to decant the pesticide into a smaller container, maybe a Coca Cola bottle or a plastic bag. Of course that's an incredibly hazardous process. And you end up with an inappropriate container that may leak. You haven't got the label or the safety information. And this is a really common source of poisoning in my experience. For example, I was in West Africa last year in Benin and spoke to the head of epidemiology in the government. And just within the last month, he'd been dealing with two cases of mass poisoning from reused, from repacked pesticides. In one case, a family of eight, six people died, leaving two small children because someone had mistaken a bottle of pesticide in a reused container, in a repacked container for cooking oil. And in another case, he was looking at the same sort of thing happened with a contaminated container used for cooking oil. Repacking is incredibly common, sadly. And we've got a picture, two pictures on the right, one of Paraguay of all things, very highly hazardous in a plastic bag. And that was in India and bottom right. This is a retail premises for pesticides with a whole area devoted to repacking of pesticides into drinks bottles. And this was a super common practice that we found in both Georgia and Armenia. And in fact, the Georgian authorities subsequently had a campaign around improving practices on retail premises in response to this work. So as I say, repacking results in illegal containers that are prone to leaking and spills, lack of labels that reach the farm level. It generates hazardous waste, of course, it's linked to fatal poisonings and it's highly risky for the person who does the repacking. I just to give you some figures from various countries in Eastern Europe in the Caucasus. And you can see I mentioned Armenia and Georgia in the surveys that we did repacking was was extremely common in those countries, but it's pretty common across the board. Even in Kyrgyzstan, where it was lowest, you have approximately 12, 12% of farmers reporting that they buy their pesticides in repacked containers drinks bottles and plastic bags, for example. As we know triple rinsing is an important way of reducing the hazard from the original pesticide container. And it's something that we would support and promote the picture on the right shows a chap using one of our posters that we produced for FAO in the Caribbean. He's in Suriname promoting triple rinsing. And I know that crop life and probably Andy will talk about crop life efforts to promote triple rinsing as well and they also have helpful resources on that. In order to buy European standards in order to get containers below the, the level where they're considered non hazardous that's 0.1% of the mass of the container and that any pesticide residue. That's an important step in order that those containers can then feed into the chain for re collection recycling and then our energy recovery. So, we would support triple rinsing to reduce the hazard from those containers and enable them to be fed into those processes. And in the in 1990 the EPA did studies showing that triple rinsing could bring residues below that threshold level. However, but we would urge some caution and it can be difficult for farmers to get good compliance with that. With triple rinsing and some highly toxic substances are difficult to bring below that threshold. Water supply is obviously an important issue as far as triple rinsing goes. And some farmers don't have easy access to piped water in the area where they're handling pesticides. In Antigua, for example, we did a survey a couple of years ago and that revealed that 68% of farmers were rinsing their empty containers. And that's exactly the same proportion of farmers that had a tap water accessible where they handle pesticides. You can see in the picture on the right, it's not uncommon for farmers to result to rinsing their spray equipment and containers in rivers that are nearby if they don't have easy access to piped water. And obviously that's a concern in terms of contaminating that river system. So if you come to disposal practices, clearly if you don't have a good disposal option then people result to options which could end up in contaminating soils, water and air. Burning empty containers is quite a common practice and that releases dioxins and other toxins from the plastic as well as the potential hazards from the pesticide residues. It may not be advisable, but very common unfortunately. And you can see from the graph here that across some of the countries we worked in Armenia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Ukraine, all these practices of burning, burying and discarding containers in the field are common while triple rinsing is pretty uncommon apart from in Belarus it seemed to be more widely practiced. And a larger survey in Georgia in 2014-2015 and into 2016 and that included 920 smallholder farmers. Fewer than 10% of farmers were puncturing or triple rinsing their containers and users of burning and discarding empty containers in the fields. Five respondents, so not very many but still a concern, said they threw old containers directly into the river, four said they used empty containers for drinking water. Some portion but still concerning in terms of human health risk. This just gives you some of the stats alongside that from the same study in Georgia. So few than 10% of farmers talked about triple rinsing, burning was a very common practice and highly hazardous. In the survey we separated landowners, the farmers themselves from their paid workers to see if practices are different. Of course the paid workers more often said I don't know. So compared with other studies not done by Pounders published studies, studying Greece in 2018, which is, you would have thought would have some established systems for dealing with empty containers. So I found that 19.6% of containers were burned or buried, quite a high proportion. A study in Bolivia in 2017 showed that 93% of empty containers were just disposed of in what they called vulnerable places that meant discarded in fields or rivers. Sometimes the population did not know what triple rinsing was and 31% of the empty containers still had pesticide residues inside them. So just to reiterate, burning chemical waste, sorry buried chemical waste, can contain ground water while burning sites and containers releases highly toxic fumes. These are really undesirable. So what can be done about this problem that affects farmers but whole communities and the environment we all live in. Looking at FAO guidelines on management options, empty pesticide containers, and kind of standard practice in terms of waste management hierarchy. The most effective measures are the preventative ones. So we would always urge looking at pesticide use and ways to minimize pesticide use that can protect farmer livelihoods but also environmental health. The disposal is actually the least effective option. Dealing with the problem after it's occurred is always less effective than preventing it. So looking at crop life figures, the plant science industry goal as I state on the website and I'm sure Andy will talk more about this later. The goal is to continuously improve the farmer return rates and the number of countries which contain the management programs. The ambitions up till this year and I don't know what what it is going forward is to collect 50% of containers shipped into the global market. It's feasible into end use applications. We have the containers and I think that of the their 40 mature, well established container programs. 66% of all plastic containers ships. That leaves 44% of containers that are not recovered and leaving us with a significant problem. I would make three key points. One is that empty pesticide containers are a significant global problem with negative impact on health and environment for all of us. Second that the most effective measure is to reduce pesticide use and that can be done protecting livelihoods protecting natural resources on which agricultural productivity depends and protecting the environment. And that effective container management schemes are greatly needed, but they will not entirely solve the problem. Thank you. I'll end there and stop sharing my screen. Thank you very much Shayla for very interesting presentation showing us how empty pesticide container represent a high risk in developing countries. And definitely, we need strategies to put in place for solving this problem. There are some extractor strategy, but this should be a structure in order to solving the not just the, as you mentioned the empty pesticide containers or the problems with the pesticides. Now, let me introduce our second speaker, Mr. Andrew Ortt, since 2017 Andrew has been the CropLife International Stewardship Director, basic in Brazil. He holds a PhD in paste and resistant management from the School of Development and Study University of its Anglia in UK. He has been a market in agriculture development for donor funded program, and in the year in CGR International Agriculture Centers for 20 years. It is the practical side of work that he enjoys most, and has been able to benefit from living and working in Africa for 12 years, including three years in Nigeria and six years in Serbia. And the floor is yours. Thank you very much, Tanya. And thanks very much, Shayla. That's, that's seen really well. Sorry, can I just check other on my slide sharing. Yes, it is definitely great. Thank you very much. So let me give a presentation from the industry side. The status of where we are now and a little bit about where we want to go. I think Sheila made some good points there. We want to, to continue to expand container management and increase the effectiveness of it. I, myself, as a stewardship director, I focus mainly on the post sales ends of products and working with farmers at that angle. But in terms of container management, I also work quite closely with colleagues on the anti counterfeit side, because another problem is that criminals take containers that have previously held legal products. And then they, they refill them with, well, a variety of products and sell them illegally. And therefore effective container management can also take containers away from the criminals and, and make, make their, their, their, their businesses a little bit more complicated. And I also work closely with regulators. So, for CropLife International, we represent the six research and development companies of the plant sciences industry, being Bayer and BSF based in Germany. For an FMC headquartered in the United States, Sumitomo in Japan and Sagenta in Switzerland. These are the CropLife International member companies. We also have, we have a hierarchical structure. So there are also regional associations and then national associations. We have the European Crop Protection Association in Europe, and CropLife Asia and Asia, and CropLife Africa Middle East. Now, the membership of the regional and the national associations may vary. These are the, the international members, but at, at a country level, there may be other members of CropLife. I can't speak for the whole industry. What I'm speaking today comes from these six member companies and, and where their approach. I'm sure Dr. Gu was going to talk about this and, and he will talk more just to note that earlier this month CropLife International and FAO signed a letter of intent. And because of that is, is presented in this slide, but I believe that all three areas also address container management, working up from the bottom, sharing information. You will hear from this presentation that we have a lot of experience in terms of container management. We're very open to sharing that. In terms of management of transboundary pests, we realize that that can often lead to, to products being bought and how can we work on the management of the containers there. And then also when we're talking about sound management of pesticide, that's not just the application in the field. That's dealing with the containers in a responsible manner afterwards as well. That is presented very well. The problems with with containers, the problems with plastic more generally, and we're not isolated in this if you look at what's happening out there. There is a lot of focus on plastic management. The circular economy is one of the pillars of the world business councils for sustainable development. We have a $4.5 billion fund called the Alliance to End Plastic Waste. There is the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, all that are focused on dealing with with the plastic problem. And we're, we're keen to be working more and more with the Eastline field. As technology is moving forward, there are actually more opportunities, particularly in terms of putting a value onto those containers, so that there's actually a value to disposing of them in a responsible fashion. So yeah, benefits of container management, maybe to address. And when we talk about container management, we're talking about the collection of disposal of the containers in a responsible fashion, aligned with the code of conduct, it reduces the human health and environmental issues that Sheila has mentioned. But then also moving forward, where there are recycling schemes, there's also a benefit in terms of climate change. And of course, in terms of obstructing the activities of criminals on the counterfeit side. When you look from an industry side in terms of where the plastic comes from I mean plastic is a very good substance it's just the disposal of the plastic is an issue that it provides a lot of safety to prevent products from leaking out. And that's why the repackaging that Sheila highlighted is the issue, because then containers themselves are strong and robust. But that's also an issue that they become attractive for reuse in inappropriate manners within the packaging lifecycle, we can provide a lot of control on what's happening internally. But we're really looking into the into the left hand side bottom corner, as to how can we, how can we make sure that even after sales have taken place. Can there be management of those containers, ideally for recycling, if not recycling incineration in approved facilities, whereby the temperatures are high enough not to produce dioxins and emissions can be monitored. And ideally that there can be some energy recovery, so that there there is some environmental benefits from it as well, and preferably not landfill. And if it is landfill to make sure that it's monitored and constructed in a very careful manner. So CropLife has worked for over 30 years or CropLife member companies have worked for over 30 years in container management. And to date we have over 50 countries where container management is taking place. The most recent developments have been happening in China, where container management is starting to operate at a provincial level. This has been facilitated by some by some government policies. Just to say that when it comes to container management, we try do try to network across the CropLife National Associations and partner organizations. So it's not reinventing the wheel in every country. We're looking to learn from previous experiences, so that we can develop as effective models that are country specific as possible, but building on that previous experience. For example, that's what has been taking place in China. And we're currently working on on the same in India to be developing the Indian system, but to be using examples, successful examples from other countries. So to take a quick look at some of these countries where there are impressive examples that in Brazil, 93% of containers that are coming into the market are being collected and are being recycled. So when we when we promote recycling or where recycling takes place. Yes, the containers are triple rinsed, and that helps to reduce any residue but we also monitor carefully the plastics that come out of of the recycling. And their own waste stream to make sure that there isn't contamination. And even so, there is a prescribed list of uses for the plastics to make sure that risk is further reduced by keeping the recycled plastic away from direct contact with constant contact with humans or contact with food. In Brazil, that means that some of the plastic that's been recycled has actually been mixed with virgin containers and has gone into producing new containers that in itself has brought about significant climate benefits. It's been calculated that there's been a reduction in 750,000 tons of carbon equivalent through the recycling of container rather than producing new containers from virgin plastic. And something else that I think it would be interesting to to explore in terms of container management is not just looking at pesticide containers as a source of plastic pollution on farm. There are other sources, fertilizer bags, seed bags, even PPE. So how can that be managed effectively? Again, we've got experiences in France. There are 16 different farm level waste streams which are which are collected. And it's something that we're looking to to expand more at CropLife International working with other industries to make sure that other plastics are responsibly disposed of as well. In South Africa, we have a program in which quite high value has been extracted from the plastics. So actually, the container management is able to pay for itself through the sale of the recycled plastic at the end. In other programs, the container management is paid for through governments and industry contributions usually related to the percentage of the market that different companies hold. They will then pay an amount towards the container management. So, yeah, what do we need to have in place to establish effective container management. And there are a number of stakeholder groups here that that we need to have understanding and commitment from. We can't just do this as an industry. We need to be working with farmers, as has been said before, particularly in terms of triple rinsing and add to the triple rinsing puncturing containers. So that even if they're triple rinsed, they can't be reused as water bottles or containers themselves. And again, they're no longer of any use as they are for counterfeiters. There's no government to make sure that there's buy-in for them for the local oversight of particularly collection processes and to ensure that the local laws helped to support collection sites, which won't bring about any pollution to the environment. So in some areas in Latin America, we've explored, we've discovered that the container management can be quite effective and actually criminals will try to break into the collection sites and take the empty containers. So through working with local government, we can help to ensure that there is protection for the collection sites. Also in terms of retailers, retailers are selling the product. In some countries, retailers also act as collection points for triple rinsed containers, but at least for retailers to provide guidance as to how to responsibly dispose of the containers. The national governments, again, similar to local government, but even more important, one of the constraints to container management can be the classification of triple rinsed containers. So quite a lot of our work in China has been working to change that classification and to show where triple rinsed containers are available, that they can be classified as non-hazards and therefore transported in a more cost-effective manner. I should just go back to that farmer issue and the triple rinsing that one of the strategies that's used to encourage farmers to triple rinse is that if they put the rinse site, so after they've rinsed the container, if they pour that back into their sprayer, then they're getting the maximum value from the product that was in the container in the first place. So trying to appeal to the farmers' economic sense to encourage triple rinsing. And of course, it's not just the six CropLife International member companies that are bringing containers into the market, so we also have to do advocacy work and actually part of that work is to show to other companies that this isn't as expensive as they might feel and that there are real benefits to it. Of course, other benefits in terms of establishing container management are the availability of recyclers or effective incineration facilities, the government policy and widespread support for the triple rinsing and puncturing. And we've been really delighted by the response of different stakeholders in China to triple rinsing. Last December we held an international symposium on container management in China. We were absolutely delighted to see some of the additional work that had been developed. I mean, there was one young team who had developed an Internet of Things based system based on the QR code for tracing and then returning containers and getting a small payment for returning the containers. This was an additional piece of work from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences looking at the amount of residue in containers after triple rinsing. And you see that they built this up. They looked at the residue, sorry, in the fourth column after just one rinse, the second rinse and then the third rinse. And although you could try to justify that maybe you only need to do two rinses, we try to really, really push on the safe side, so to promote triple rinsing just to make sure that the product has been removed to a safe level from the container. Yeah, and then constraints to container management. Of course, people are concerned that it will be costly, especially to establish that where there are free loaders so that there are companies who aren't having their containers, they're not paying for their containers to be managed. It erodes trust in the system and can lead to container management collapse. Ignoring the broader experience, we, as I said, we have experienced in 51 countries. How can we build on that rather than trying to make the same mistakes that maybe some of the other programs experienced when they were established. And then we need to recognize that there needs to be a supportive enabling environment, a policy environment for container management, so as to ensure effectiveness and sustainability. I think, yeah, in terms of opportunities and then I'll be leaving this, maybe I should come up, come back and just say that we do have container management strategy, which will be pushing through to 2025, which is based on increasing the number of countries where container management is taking place, but also increasing our effectiveness, so increasing collection rates within those countries. We have reviewed, one of the classic situations is that containers that are used in a more remote setting are often harder to get returned or collected than in settings closer to where there are larger populations. So we're working to address that and that that's a big focus for us over the next few years. As I said earlier, also looking to expand container management beyond just pesticide containers so that we can get the support of other industries as well. How can we link with innovations in the plastics world, pyrolysis is chemical recycling that's turning plastics back to their constituent oils. And in doing that you're turning plastics back to a virgin substance. So you can take the rest of any residue that there might be in pesticide containers and incinerate that safely, and then the plastic that you have is as good as new. And also, this is something not just of interest to us but also to the petrochemical industry and their interest as to how management of plastic can generate plastic credits, which would help on the finances of the system. And then looking at recycling incentives, what recycling incentives are there within a country and how as an industry can we can we build on those. So thanks very much for your time today. I just wanted to really emphasize that that container management is something that has been most effective where it's been done, not just from the industry or not just from the government. But through the different key stakeholders working together. And I was always really touched by by this African proverb that if you want to go fast, go alone. But if you want to go far, go together. And I think in container management, we want to go far. Thank you. Thank you very much, Andrew. Very interesting presentation. And this presentation, I'll win us to see how the private sector can support in this area, in line with the international code of conduct and pesticide management really appreciated presentation. Indeed, if we want to solve the problem this container issues, we need to work together. I agree with you 100%. We need to work together. We need to support the stakeholders, not just the government, not just private sector, not just NGO. We need to work together. Thank you. And now, please allow me to introduce. It seems to be the last speaker. No, this is not the last speaker. This is Dr. Donard. Dr. Donard, a PhD in physical chemistry and postdoctoral fellow at the University of Utah has worked for a multinational chemical company in the areas of protection for more than 33 years. He has held various position in research and production in Europe in Latin America. He is the director of contract packaging, packaging development and labeling, director of supply chain stewardship. Since 2018, he is teaching in the University of Cape Town. He was involved in the establishment of container management system in Russia. And provides consultancy to CropLife International implementing container management system in China. In 2016, he has also been an international consultant for FAO or SMS, working in various projects in Malawi, Botswana, and West African countries. Please bear with the floor is yours. Thank you very much, Tanja, for the very kind introduction, and I try now to get my presentation on the screen. Just a second. Here we go. So I hope you can everybody can see it now and can hear me. Okay, perfect. Good. So in my presentation, I would like to go a little bit more into details and I already appreciate your patience with me. In the following, I would like to cover briefly the typology and quantities and container management globally. So I would go a little bit more into detail to the issues and true address elements of good container management implementation, recidious classification. I had seen there were some questions and I also would like to have a short remark on the business model. What you see in this slide are the widely used pesticide packaging. So you see it's plastic, it's made of metal, it's made of glass, and we have a small volume and contours and bigger ones that are the one way packages and more than 50% of the pesticides are sold as liquids. And only part of these containers are rigid ones and that are the ones that can be easily rinsed and flexible ones are a little bit more difficult to rinse. And many of the pesticides are classified as dangerous goods and that means for transportation they need special high standard container that have a UN approval that also explains why there is the second market and the second life of these containers. As you already mentioned that in more than 40 or 50 countries, there are collection schemes operating. Many of them are operating since more than 20 years. And we have also a lot of startups and projects and systems and the design phase. Over the last 13 years are the collection rate of the benchmark countries by benchmark I mean benchmark by crop life international has tripled so we are closely to roughly 90 to 100,000 tons per year that's already collected under the benchmark scheme of crop life. And you have seen in some countries like Brazil, the return rate is bigger than 90%. But that are countries that have, I would say, mainly an industrial farming, whereas going to the small and medium enterprises like in Africa or in Latin America, we face a different situation. And let me continue. And I also would like to share with you my view about the prerequisites for good container management. I mean, the legislation and that has been stressed already supports or should support container management, good container management and that the elements are extended producer responsibility like economy, but also quantitative criteria for the classification of waste. We were talking here about 0.1 0.01% that are quantitative criteria and I will come to that a little bit later. We need a sound business model that means an organized scheme and a durable financing. I mean, although the cost for collection has been decreased, there's still an substantial amount of money to be paid to have a running container management system. Infrastructure that means logistics, including intermediate storage, treatment, recycler, disposal has to be in place, analytical and regulatory monitoring. I mean, when promising something, we also have to check it and to follow up and that can be done by analytical monitoring. And we need an ongoing commitment of stakeholders. That means we need the awareness, sensitization and training of the farmers. We need incentives and we also need to some amount enforcement. And we have also to provide convenience. I mean, looking at Africa, we are complaining that containers end up in the nature, but there is no way for these farmers to get rid of these empty containers. And I think the objective when introducing container management is to get know-how transfers. So the region or the country is able to manage the packaging waste in a sustainable manner on its own. And in many, many areas we have seen that there were donors spending a lot of money, a pilot was running and as soon as the donors stopped financing the project, the container management scheme collapsed. And therefore we have to take care that there is an ongoing financing for the container management system. And talking about the success factors, we also have to turn the coin around to see the flip side and that means there are pain points. That is low priority of governmental and importers and stakeholders. There's a lack of suitable infrastructure. Logistics in reality look very challenging when you go to remote areas, you have poor road conditions and long distances. And one point that destroyed some pilots already in the past, for instance in India and other countries, was that there is a non-durable financing. And in general, there's a poor waste management and understanding what waste means. I also would like to take that opportunity to make a short expose on management of obsolete stocks and empty rinsed pesticide containers, because that sometimes is mixed and put together and I think that should be kept separate. The op stocks are dealing with faced out and op stock pesticide sometimes also with contaminated soil, whereas the empty rinsed containers deal with empty primary packaging. In op stock case, the products are not approved for use anymore are not suitable for use, whereas containers collected normally come from products that are approved for use. Ideally, obsolete stock management is a one-off operation, whereas empty rinsed pesticide container management is a recurrent operation. That means it will happen every year, every season. So ideally, obsolete stocks issue, the quantity will be declining. Container management, whenever the system is growing, the quantity of material is growing. Obsolete stocks means we are dealing product with packaging. Empty rinsed containers means we are dealing with packaging with traces of product. So that means 99.9% of the waste stream is packaging and that is a difference. If we agree, obsolete stock highly hazardous waste but the empty rinsed pesticide containers can be in some cases known hazardous waste and I will come back to that a little bit later. So the recommendation is really to keep management of obsolete stocks separate from container management. I said good container management is a multi stakeholder issue. I mean the first thing is to have the good and suitable packaging. That is the responsibility of the producer. The second thing is the cleaning of the packaging, triple rinsing, pressure rinsing, and the third issue is the check and collect the packaging via a dedicated system. And you see the person checking the container, that's a wizard check, but we can do better. If we look into the issue of residues, there are two sources of residues. One is the adhesion and the other one is migration. Adhesion is everything that sticks to the container walls inside outside. That can be removed by proper rinsing. Adhesion is something that gets into the container walls. It's like the resin in the cake. And that cannot be easily removed. However, that is normally a very, very tiny fraction, but both of that adds to the residues. There are analytical ways to check the residues in the waste stream. And the concentration of the residues triggers is a classification of the waste stream. And here we have a limit value that is 0.1%. That follows the European legislation that says if the accumulated concentration of trigger compounds is above 0.1%, it's hazardous waste. And opposite way says if it is below, it's non-hazardous. And here you see the reality. Andrew was talking about the French system that is taken from a French collection scheme, and you see the bars here indicate the quantity of product left in the waste stream. And you see it is below one order of magnitude from the threshold value. But not all legislations have a threshold value. And that makes things so difficult because the many legislation outside Europe are based on the precautionary principle. And you can then not come up with real threshold values when you say that is hazardous waste or known hazardous waste. That makes it so difficult to declassify the waste. And in reality, if we strictly apply the principle of precautionary for the packaging waste, that one is more severely classified than food. I know some of you don't like that statement. Let's go into an example. Let's suppose we have one kilogram of recycled plastic and that one kilogram contains 1.2 ppm of an residue of an active ingredient. That is 1.2 milligram of that compound. If you have now a container of water and you put that block into that water and you wait long enough, then you will have an equilibrium of the residue in the plastic and in the water. And then you cannot up. That's a little bit simplified, but you can end up with a concentration of 0.06 ppm of that active ingredient in the water. If you go into the waste classification, that means you are in the green area, but if you go for instance into the drinking water limit value that is 0.5 ppm, then of course you are out of the limit. And that means that's not anymore allowed to use and to drink that water according to the European standards. And also explains to you why an used empty pesticide container even after rinsing is not suitable for storing of food. And I think that is something people normally frequently mix that they say, well, if it is triple rinse, then we have reduced the amount of the pesticide in the container to less than 0.01%. And it's late then to a concentration in the packaging waste to far below 0.1%. And then they say, well, there's no residue anymore and that is wrong. And now let's have also look about the speed of the leaching. Leaching is the opposite of migration into the container. Leaching means now the active ingredients leave the plastic. As you can see at the beginning, the leaching rate is very high. So that means at the beginning, we have a very high amount of active ingredient leaving the plastic. And let me now come to another point, treatment of the plastic. I mean, we have the post-consumer resin entering treatment facility. That is a treatment facility. And the treatment facility cleans up the plastic and comes out and plastic, more clean plastic. It's like the kidney in the human body. And that post-consumer resin on the outcome can be then recycled. And Andrew already pointed that out that the recycling, the material recycling of that plastic has dedicated end users. And that is also well described in the catalog. It looks complicated, but there are end-use options available. You see that in drainage tides and new containers, fence posts, and so on. Now, let me come now to the last thing that is the commercial part. Here we have a business case that shows you a little bit the financial implication. In that model, academic calculation, we have roughly 280 tons of plastic shipped every year to the market. And when we start now a collection scheme, it starts at low values and then we end up with some 66% in that model. And that is associated with some cost for the operation for all the other topics and task collection scheme has to fulfill. And you see that red curve shows you the specific cost per kilogram collected. And that follows somehow in Boston Consulting Curve. That means with increasing experience and time, the specific cost will decrease. That is based on experience and also on the economics of scale. If you multiply quantity with specific cost, you have the cost of the system. And now you see you have to have a financing system. And that is done here with a green curve. And here we calculated with a cost and financing of one US dollar per kilogram of primary packaging sent to the market. If you compare cost and financing, then you come to the resulting curve. That is a little bit the economics behind that. And we certainly can go into that in more detail. But for the moment I would like to finish my presentation and thank you for your patience dealing with such a numeric work. Thank you very much. Thank you very much developed for the great presentation and the qualifying the key concept, introducing the container management system, and the main challenge and the opportunities for its implementation in our countries. Really great presentation. Thank you. And now, I would like to invite Mr. Go, senior agricultural officer and team leader of pesticide management at FAO. Okay, can you hear me? Yes, yes. Yes. Yeah, Tony, the colleague, I'm sorry for my late joining and special meeting the, yeah, at the beginning, yeah, opening the map. It seems that my computer got to problems. They were detected by the virus because they would prevent the little work. So, yeah, but I know I will like to not only to wake up all for you, but also appreciate your organizing their webinar and your participation. I would like to thank Sheila Andre that live for their excellent participation, which provide plenty of valuable information, regarding the container management. I think all of you are presentation provide valuable information making our website successful. We found above presentation, we know that addressing container management is important. However, it is difficult and the challenge of the regulation policy, technology, financial mechanism and engagement of key stakeholders. Containment is important part of life cycle management. And it has been important to aspects of pet FAO, pesticide management program. So next, I would like to share some of my thoughts with you regarding the container management. Can you see the screen? Yes, it's fine. So, yeah, key point is that container management is a key element of cycle management pesticide. I want you to share briefly on some three soft first importance of FAO policy guidelines activities. So there is a container management screen. As colleagues, as the previous presentation mentioned that there are a lot of pet antennas go to the market and at the end became the western element. They are posing pollution to soil and ground the water. This could do with health and become a big problem to the first. And the rural environment. We need some big farmer farms in Africa and founded that there are a lot of empty containers stored in their farms. And this is a really a headache problem for them to deal with it. They don't know how to treat for them. This is the support of gametes of men in the stakeholders. And so container management is important. It can ensure they put that's in good quality safety during transportation and the start. Also, good package will provide sufficient information so for the level for a perfect use of pesticide, such like this, the table, this level, and also both importantly, container management will reduce the risk to the human health and the environment as presented by the previous. So the contaminant will contribute to the SDG 36. I always saw sustainable management. Sustainable agriculture as a well improving livelihood of farmers. And also, now, there are increasing requirement for waste management, especially practice, a global care chemical management framework. In past, we mainly mentioned chemical management. Now, waste management has been added into the tools. So normally, we often mentioned the chemical and the waste management, not only on chemical management. And also, I feel the member of the Basel Convention partnership on pesticide management, focusing on container management. So this new trend of the waste management, especially the plastic management, including the empty container management. So wrapping container management scheme is important and essential. So what the current FL policy guidelines, technical issues regarding the container management. And also, I said that FL are approaching the life cycle approach for pesticide. For all the research, registration, production, use, and at the end is dispose of stalkers and the empty container management. And in the code of the content, I think everyone know it. The specific articles regarding container management. 175 adopting the life cycle approach to address all major aspects, including practice side containers. And the chemical 10.4. So take as a necessary legality issues to prohibit the packaging and the decanting of any pesticide into food and beverage, animal feed, etc. 10.8. This is very important. Governments, industries, international regulation, agriculture, community, and the vector control program should implement policies and the practice to prevent the accumulation of the used containers. Yeah. Accumulation, so recycling disposal, etc. And another article is a pesticide industry. Traders provide technical support for effective management, empathy, pesticide content. Yeah, Andrew. You found us. And it's remember that the site in nature are actively involved in the program. For content management. Also issued developed a science or management option for empathy. For all these guidelines, you can know PMS regarding the empty container management. Dr. That already addressed some issues, some elements and those under it is condition also address the issues and not go details. And FAO are supporting the countries on climate. Taking Africa for example, you're supporting the rich developing regional strategy action plan. We're also support the development national strategy and the business model. Also, we are conducting private for the cycling and as well as support the awareness racing and training. Challenges such as in everything which is setting a framework. No proper classification, weak engagement or peace code. And also link off the incentive, sustainable financial mechanism. Yes, as the colleague mentioned. So there are many elements for kind of major scheme. And here I just want to hire a few issues with you. First is the mechanism of developing container management scheme. So it to show me cover below issues. First is the legal basis. They got container management I think two parts of the legal issues. First is the regulations on requirement for the packaging or pesticide registration. Set a specific requirement on the packaging due legislation. Second is specific content element scheme policy or regulation. And the China, China newly published a new regulation on the content element. And regarding the content management scheme, that two kind of the scheme. One is a voluntary scheme. Round operated by the companies and schools. Second is legally managed scheme. I think this is more effective, more sustainable. Yeah. And not the details. Yeah. And the second issue is economic and incentives. This is very important. No, the content management scheme needs to be economic viable. They are to be sustainable. I'm taking one model in China, for example, I mentioned active active in China. So they model like this. Farmer bring. I'm pretty content to the details. Petite shoppers. And they can get a reduction of the prices. For example, one bottle, one package, you can get 10 cents. The touching for prices. And then they pay to sell the reduce the cost, reduce the prices. Best of the quantity of the containers. So doing this way, farmer are incentivized to bring. For the tune. I'm pretty content to the correct. They emphasize the traders. Then they trade. Proceed proceeding. And then a specific. Entity in China. One province is a person coming. They collected the. Empty container. To. They to the company. And they wash the same and. Selecting. And. Treating different way. For disposal for recycling for other purpose. Yeah. How it is financially sustainable. The government. Provide incentive. Provide a financial support to the. Yes. Who collected the. Correctly. Um, but contemporary farmers. And all of them provide financial support. The company who. Do they. Recycling. Yeah. Operating the whole scheme. This is one. One example in China. Another example is a voluntary. Skin. So mainly organized. Implemented by the company voluntary. Yeah. And in the Chinese. Skin. The integer have active. Engagement. They. Provide a technical and financial support. For it. Yeah. So the element is that. Infrastructure and. And the logistic. This is very important. I also is very important. We should have a. Have a. Entities to pay out the scheme. This is very important. This entity shall be. In the chat. Or in the chat associate. And the second issue. I want to mention a stack hold. So model stack approach is the only approach. Yeah. As a colleague. Previous. Speaker mentioned that. We showed engagement. Of the gamuts. And Joe's. Uses. And. They show their own. Own laws. Yeah. So. The key is that gamut. And indige key properties. Gamut. And the indige. There are two important. Stakeholders. Yes. So. So. The first example. Containment. Is crucial. So today we now. Have. Present. And part pens from different. Sectors. Equal in gamuts. In Dutch. And NGOs. And it is the first. For more women. And I think. The good example. Of more this data. The whole engage. Ten amendment. A container is important part of. And it's management. Has become increasing. Important issue in global. And the environment. But I think. We are still weak. In these aspects. And it's over that. So corporate. Work together. To a business issues. In central. Asia. And Turkey is hope that. We could work together. Developer. A political aid. Country specific. Container value scheme. In. The alias. And the countries. And the project. Life cycle management. Of. And the disposal. Of. In central Asia. And Turkey. To improve the capacity. Of. In the countries. Especially. The. Container management. And. Also it's a hope that. You are successful. Screen. Could provide. Good examples. Of containment. Skin for other countries. And the regions. In future. If it is a successful webinar. And I think it's a good start. For the joint activities. And. Container management. Skin in central Asia. Turkey. So. Thank you all. Congratulations to the. Excellent permission. And the hope that. The webinar will be very successful. And also the success. Of the projects. And. Container management. In central Asia. And Turkey. And I still. Show my. Yeah. Sorry to the. Missing the. Beginning. Yeah. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. For you kind words. Really we appreciate it. And also for sharing the effort your policies and approach. And this is him and activities on container management system. As you mentioned very well. All this is him some proposal. In the most important. It's my personal. And I think that most of the people also think the same. That the most important FEO document in pesticide. Is the international code of conduct on pesticide management. Also I. I would like to point it and I agree with you. As well as with Andrew. As I mentioned, the state holder approach is the key to tackle. With these issues. And I think as FEO, we can facilitate this in order to put all the stakeholders together and to try to solve these specific programs. Okay. With that. It's very important to recognize the first part of our women are. When our key speaker sharing with us, the views, their approach. And now. We will have. Break. Before starting with the panel discussion will be. Which will be moderated by a student. So please. Take five minutes and we can back in five minutes. Okay. We have a break. Okay. See you at 12. Five. Hello, we are coming back. Now we will start with the second part of our agenda. This is the panel discussion. And panel discussion will be moderated by our senior advisor, technical advisor of the folks. Steven Robinson. And I passed the floor to Steven Steven. The floor is yours. Thank you very much, Daniel. It is actually the first time in my life. I do manage a virtual panel. So I'm still wondering how this will be. But I think it's a little bit the same challenge as introducing container management systems in countries. So we have heard now for very interesting presentations telling us what's the challenge, but also what should be done. But obviously this all will happen in a concrete environment. And so we wanted to invite four, eight countries from our region to have a little bit better understanding what is the realities. And I hope that I have formulated three questions. And based on these three questions that we have a moment. That these three questions then will help us to better understand what are the challenges we need to discuss. Now, let me quickly see that I get it right. Okay, now we have the questions. Okay, so let me quickly, as the slide is not visible. Only the questions quickly tell you who is participating. And I would like the eight panelists to open up their microphones. We have miss Allah Loboda from the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine. We have miss Hayala Dadasova, the head of the Plant Protection Department at the Azerbaijan Food Safety Agency. We have Lillian Azarbayev, who is a chief specialist in the government through Chemical Commission in Uzbekistan. Then miss Verunikar Terteya, director at the in the political section of the Plant Protection Department in Koldova. Then Mr. Almas Alakunov, who is in working for the Department of Chemicalization in Kyrgyzstan. Dr. Yunus Bayram, who is the acting deputy director general of the Department of Food and Control at the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Turkey. Then Mr. Mikolo Meschi, who is the head of the Plant Protection Department of the National Food Agency in Georgia. And finally, we should have Mr. Rachmaturo Khairuloyev, who is a chief specialist at the Committee on Environmental Protection in Tajikistan. Unfortunately, he had to leave on a very short notice to a field trip. So he's replaced by Mr. Umet Ulugov, who will then providing the answers on his behalf. Now we have multiple languages, part of the, I hope everything works out with the Turkish, Russian and English channel. So my first question would be obviously to understand what's the problem is. We have to understand how much pesticide packaging is sold on the market every year in your country so that we have an idea, do we have to deal with one thousand ton or ten thousand ton of various wastes and we have to base our governmental or national strategy based on that volume. So Ms. Lobodat, could you give a very short number on that one? Good afternoon. I'm good to hear. I'm listening to you. Thank you very much. I would like to say that we will definitely provide these data to you, and unfortunately I won't announce them in detail now, but we will provide them, we have ordered them and we will definitely provide the latest data on the figures at the end of this meeting. Okay, thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, what do you know about Azerbaijan? Do you know the figures? Dear Stefan and dear colleagues, I also welcome you all. And I want to say that Azerbaijan is an agrarian country. We have a lot of plants, plant production and we also have fertilizers, so we also use pesticides but there are very few pesticides in Azerbaijan. And therefore we import each year, almost every year we import 8-9000 tons of pesticides. And all these pesticides are put on sale. Okay, thank you. This is a very clear answer. Liliya Nazarbayev from Uzbekistan. What do you know about Uzbekistan? Liliya, yes. I can also tell you about the exact figures because this information is found by the state and we need to officially ask for it. But I can say that according to the 17th year, approximately from the calculation of 5 hectares in the whole country, it is used in the middle of where there are 0.4 kg of pesticides per hectare. From this calculation. Okay, thank you Liliya. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you very much for being with us. What can you tell us about Moldova? Here is the first question. What is the number of the first pack of pesticides? Unfortunately, we do not take this into account at the level of the country. We only take into account the number of pesticides that are being imported. We import somewhere in a year and use 4,000 tons. But we do not have such norms and unfortunately we do not take into account. Thank you very much. Maybe to change now the language I would like to ask Dr Bayram on behalf of Turkey. Of course, as with other friends, it is impossible to see these numbers and to guess them correctly. Maybe we can take this path from imported and produced pesticides. And maybe we can take this path from the production area and production area. Turkey is a country with a production area of 24 million hectare. At the same time, approximately 48-50 thousand tons of pesticides are used in Turkey. Therefore, by taking this path, we can predict something like this. It is impossible to predict what will happen in Turkey and how it will be predicted. 3,000 tons is a possibility to have an envelope. When we index the product, we predict a number on it. I just want to share this with you. In 2018, we put a follow-up program to protect the country. We applied the Karakot system in all of Turkey in 1981. In this program, while producing and producing protective equipment in the factory or in the entry points, Karakot was one of them. And this is a single code for each box. At the same time, when the collector goes to the warehouse and goes to the warehouse, it continues with the same code and gives this product on the last user, the identity number on the chip. Therefore, we have been able to predict this since 2018. In which year, in which year, in which factory, in which collector, how many boxes, how many envelopes we can give as a result. In the following years, not only a kilo or a ton of boxes, we will have net digital data in the box and envelopes. In the meantime, we will have a program that uses the Karakot program in a very comfortable way with the data about some of the information available in Turkey. All of these programs are supported by the Karakot program. So, all the chains that are produced and used will be included in this chain in the following years. Therefore, when we measure the performance of a single chain, how many products were collected and how many products were there. We will be able to watch them. Thank you. I hope you have been able to finish what you wanted to say. So, the next person I would like to ask is from Kyrgyzstan, Almaz Alakunov. Almaz, what do you know about the Karakot business? Hello, dear colleagues. In Kyrgyzstan, the situation is that every year, in Kyrgyzstan, about 650 from 600 to 650 tons of pesticides. All the pesticides in Kyrgyzstan are imported and 90% of them are from the National Republic of China. From 650, what we are talking about is 320 tons of insecticides 220 tons are herbicides and 110 tons are fungicides. This is a victory. Of these pesticides somewhere there are from 80,000 to 85,000 empty containers. That is, 50 liters canister. Mostly canisters, empty containers, they mainly burn in municipal dumps. It is about 80%. We will ask the third question. All right. So, we will ask the third question. How much does it cost? It turns out that we divide it into 5-10 because in Kyrgyzstan 50 liters are started 5-10 liters plastic canisters. This is a calculation of the impact. The impact is 650 tons and this is a calculation. Thank you very much. So, the next person I would like to ask the question what do we know about how much empty packaging weight is generated each year is Nikolos Meschi from Georgia. Nikolos, you have to unmute your microphone. Sorry. Hello to everyone. I know our agency is responsible for registration and control of pesticides and fertilizers. Up to 3,000 metric tons of pesticides are imported into the country in plastic and polyethylene packaging. Pesticides containing copper come in 50 kilograms polyethylene packs and other pesticides mainly in plastic 1 liter containers. Unfortunately, in Georgia there is no registration process for containers imported containers but every year approximately 500 tons of containers are imported in Georgia. Thank you very much Nikolos and then the next last person I would like Umed to ask Umed has not a very good connection so I hope that he hears us and we can hear him. Thank you Umed. Then let's go to the next question. As Detlef and also Mr. Gu have pointed out that in Georgia there are only 100 tons of pesticides in the country. So so Mr. Gu have pointed out if we work on empty pesticide or in general on pesticides packaging we do not have to only understand the amounts or the type of the materials but also is there any legislation in your country which discusses pesticide packaging from import through as Andrew has shown the sales chain the recollection scheme and then the end either recycling or disposal. So a question to all of our eight panelist would be do you have a legislation which at all discusses pesticide packaging and one important question if yes are they at the end classified as hazardous waste or there's no classification as hazardous waste. So let's maybe start again with Ukraine with Alalubada Mr. Alalubada Yes, I wanted to say that yes we have legislation for this plus we are very actively developing new legislation that is we have in the seventh month of this year was adopted by the Supreme Council new legislation on the management of waste and we are waiting for the second vote this legislation predicts all possible options which we really would like to fix, the system which is in our country and we have different options about the utilization of the pesticide but the utilization in our country is not provided, everything about the utilization of the pesticides we send countries in which it is allowed and provided but according to the new legislation according to the new directions which are developed by our ministries and governments of our country we do everything possible in order to have ideal control in this direction we have reform of the state inspection ecological because the lack of control any system was used, if there is no clear control system there is such a problem and since we have production plants they are provided right away on their territory these three options of washing of pesticides if I answered your question good let them classify as toxic waste or non-classification unfortunately what I said I want to correct classification after the adoption of the new law thank you I want to ask the same question of the Canadian lady from Azerbaijan yes, the Canadian Republic the law of anti-scientific control and other normative acts the situation of empty containers empty containers are also considered toxic dangerous as pesticides good thank you it's all clear thank you in Pakistan, Liliya what do you think of this question in Pakistan of course is based on the legal acts of regulation of relations related to production and storage and also safety there is a decision of the Cabinet ministers number 2438 from I think in 2013 this decision was made and all we have a state scheme which is responsible for the management of the program of the adoption and its implementation of the new law of anti-scientific control of the production of the new law of anti-scientific control of the collection of storage and utilization of waste also development of norms and other normative documents in terms of waste thank you Liliya it's interesting to hear what you have and Mrs. Terteya what do you think of this question in Moldova in the Republic of Moldova at the national level there is a law under the law which regulates the demand for the use of waste also with the law we consider that the waste can be used for other purposes also the measures that are made in order to return the old waste to the economic agent from whom he bought the waste and not give the old waste to the economic agents who have the resources to process the waste in order to prevent the waste it must apply the demand to the waste as well so that it is not available for the use of other waste and other purposes that's about it but I look at the law about waste from 2016 before watching what waste can be if as a dangerous waste if they include themselves in the next layer if they are counter-organic caradillons, tetragens and mutagens that's why today the waste is not dangerous because if it is already empty it is washed three times I couldn't determine which group is dangerous I personally think that it is not dangerous okay you finish the answer with a question and I think it is a very important question I don't understand I don't want to end okay for Miniat to change the language I would like to ask Mr Bayram to let's share with us whether there's already legislation in Turkey discussing the question of empty containers whether it's hazardous waste and as I said I don't understand your answer so I hope I will I will understand when you have finished answer please Mr. Dr. Bayram Thank you Mr. Moderator I couldn't understand why you are asking a question do you hear me was that the answer okay my camera is frozen okay Thank you in Turkey especially in the last years the zero waste project began to be implemented in Turkey and all of these in the departments in the private sector the zero waste project the purpose is to restore all the waste and to protect the environment by the Ministry of Environment this zero waste project in Kapsam the control unit of the waste was published at the level of this unit the dangerous waste including the waste of this unit we will also collect waste waste in the future Thank you Thank you very much for this brief answer and I hope it was interesting to our Turkish or to all our audience then I would like to ask Almas what do you think of the Canadian question Almas One more time I would like to welcome all the colleagues regarding the law we have in part empty containers connected with pesticides 7 normal legal acts but nevertheless we have blanks in the legislation because on this day there are norms that are not relevant or are not displayed in the modern conditions in practice the requirements of normal legal acts in the control of empty containers are not always observed everywhere that is there is such a problem it is primarily connected with the lack of infrastructure that is type of pesticides material bases the means of pollution and so on I suspect the lack of the current law in the control of empty containers regarding that classification is classified at the moment it is not classified Tara is not classified as dangerous it is not classified it does not belong to classifications at the moment Thank you very much I think the question will be later why it is not classified or the basis for non-classification but I think there will be a discussion I would like to ask the next person Nicolos Meschi from Georgia so the waste management policy in Georgia is defined by the ministry of environmental protection and agriculture on December 26, 2014 waste management code entering the first the objective of this code is to establish a legal framework for waste management in order to inclement measures facilitating prevention of waste in their reusability environmentally safe waste processing including recycling and the separation of secondary raw materials energy recovery from waste and the safe waste storage the code classifies both hazardous waste H6 toxic substances and preparations including extremely hazardous ones the storage and disposal of empty pesticides containers is regulated by resolution 451 of December 31 on the approval of technical regulation on rules on storage, transportation sale and use of pesticides and agrochemicals a draft law has been submitted to parliament of Georgia on the expanded responsibilities in environmental sector according to which pesticides importers shall be liable for disposal of containers Thank you very much, Nikolaus every country has another answer and probably if we would put them all together we would get the ideal answer Umet, if you with us what do you think of the law on waste the last law on waste the situation looks like in addition to the profile law on waste there is a law on waste and consumption where the problem is related to the return of dangerous waste we cannot be sure of the return of dangerous waste because there is no direct indication of this law but we pay attention to the law on waste adopted in 2019 for number 1567 on the protection of plants where there is a direct indication of the number of waste and the return of dangerous waste in particular order regarding marking the language the text of pesticides is responsible for three laws standardization of 2070 for number 668 law on waste consumers number 72 and the civil code with part 2 from 2060 to 1199 in addition, I pay your attention to the presence of a special order of waste management on 10 February 2016 to protect the use of waste at the moment the law on waste management can we say that the law on waste management is sufficient at the moment and I believe that no because the law on waste management should be regulated based on a higher level of law than the law on waste management which unfortunately cannot be performed so in my opinion, except for the law we need to think about mechanisms for performing these normative Thank you for your answer Thank you very much to all the speakers that you are really having questions down to the point now let me come to the final question this is certainly the question where Deadlift and Andrew are most interested because that's obviously another starting point besides the quantity and the legislation is what do you do today with your empty pesticide packaging do you bury it is the common practice landfilling people simply throw it out in nature is there some sort of a collection scheme do you triple rinse and recycle it or do you have possibilities for high temperature treatment energy recovery in your country ladies and gentlemen I can give you the first word I understand it starts with me I wanted to say that this is really considered as a dangerous method and it is impossible to utilize other methods for this unfortunately there is no I will repeat we are working in this direction and I think that in the near future we will fix it another point that we have a serious control in this direction and those manufacturers who do not have there is a system that takes this tar back to the manufacturer and they already do there triple rinsing procedure for the next use about how we do it then we do the old tar which we cannot use again it cannot be just utilized in our country we have places to store this tar for further use according to the procedure and what is very important in our new project of law we are working with all associations profiles and other institutes so that it is really very high quality there is a moment to introduce a system to expand the productivity of the manufacturer which installs a requirement for the manufacturer to carry responsibility for the full package it is very important because if there is no full cycle of responsibility of the manufacturer then this responsibility is not fulfilled and we do not see the result and what I said this is a tough, tough control which can do not just a tough control but also that it was very effective in our country thank you and I want to give a word to Mrs. Dodasheva from Azerbaijan according to the law in the agency created by the Inventation Commission in the commission various ministries come commission and a physical legal face which works in this sphere they also carry responsibility responsibility in all empty containers are collected and are stored in the warehouse but unfortunately in our republic there is no real use therefore all the second five seeds and empty containers are just stored there thank you and I think this is a Jengis polygon or is it a different place yes, yes, a Jengis polygon thank you Liliya Nazarbayev from Uzbekistan in some sources in particular I consulted with specialists Ministry of Health and State Nature it is known that many years in the country there is a lot of waste waste waste waste waste waste waste waste waste waste waste waste waste waste waste waste we already have toxic pesticides under the list that are forbidden or limited in use, not only in some exceptional cases. Therefore, the vessel that is not given back to the manufacturer, we have private companies that receive licenses, that is, the process of processing this vessel, this plastic, which has the opportunity to buy the processing devices, machines that are engaged in processing, also they are burned or processed in polymer products, production of pipes, also polymer crumbs, polymer polyethylene, all except for the food industry, yes. Thank you, Liliya. And the next one I would like to ask the same question to Veronica Terteya from Moldova. Thank you. We have, according to the legislation, a small package of paper polyethylene is allowed to burn according to the instructions that are developed by the scientific research institute in Shikirostya, and the package that is returned to the manufacturer is collected, and it is put in place, as I have already said, and is transferred twice a year to the processing of the economic agents. However, on the level of the country, not all the economic agents are collected. At the moment, not all the economic agents are ready or responsible for the transfer of this package. Many manufacturers of this package, despite the fact that they are paid, they are stored in different premises, inside specialized premises, but stored in the economic agent. On the level of the country, there is such a question that those economic agents that sell these materials, they do not want to collect back from the manufacturer of the package, because when they bring this package, they pay 1.8% of the cost of the package in the fund of the government. Therefore, they believe that on the level of the country, the government should develop such mechanisms so that they are not involved in these questions, because they pay for the pollution of the environment. This means that this issue should be transferred to the manufacturer. Thank you, Veronica. I would like to continue again in English, and I would like to ask Dr Bayram to give an analysis of what are the Turkish realities. Thank you. Especially in Turkey, there are tests that have been carried out on the basis of the Atik Ambalajs. It is possible for this test to be carried out. We also distribute containers about Atik Ambalajs in our cities. We also prepare the places where the drugs are prepared. They prepare the drugs in the villages and in those places. We also use containers in the neighborhood and collect them in the soil. After that, we collect the drugs. In recent times, we are doing some projects with our universities. Our universities are also making them a return. They are also using the soil to make a return. They are also using the soil to make a return. Therefore, we are doing research with our universities. In addition, our companies and the protection products have been very reliable. We have made a pilot project this year. We were going to do a few projects for the pandemic, but we were not able to do it because of the pandemic. In one year, we have collected 300 containers in all of our villages. We have also organized a large truck that is full of Russian and very grateful. In this year, we will collect the containers and make them available in our universities. We will also make them available in the university. We will also make them available in the university. We have a project that we have started. We started this project in May. We have a project that we have started in May. We have a project that we have started in December. In the same way, we are working on projects with our universities, universities, universities and the Ministry of Environment, our project partners. We are working on projects with different institutions and private sectors in different years. We are trying to make different projects. In the following years, we will support the development of our universities in all countries. Now, together with us, we are listening to both our medical services and our healthcare services and our films. Thank you. You are muted. Thank you very much for your answer. The last panelist is Almas. What does it look like in Kyrgyzstan? Almas. Almas. The microphone. As I said, in the Republic of Cedars there are plastic containers and 50-liter containers. And in the end, each year, there are about 80-85,000 empty containers. Of these containers, about 50% go to the municipal dumps. That is, they go to the dumps and there, gradually, they burn. Another 30% go to the dumps. It will be like a dump. It is mostly for fuel, for fuel, not for food, not for food purposes, but mostly for food purposes. 20 years ago, people used to use it for food purposes. And now, at the moment, there are very few episodes like that. And about 20% go to the dumps in the city. It should be noted that every year, the chemicalization department has been taking care of it for three years, in the last three years. And it should be noted that every year, there are many, there are many, and not just about 25% go to the dumps. It should be noted that every year, So, in Georgia, there is a list of... There is a list of companies under the Ministry of Agriculture, which have been issued permits for disposing pesticides. And also similarly, there is a state company under the Ministry of Economy overseeing disposal and processing of solid waste, including cleaned plastic containers. And there is 10 business operators functioning in total here. In frame of state program, every year our agencies conducting a larger scale campaign against especially dangerous pests like brown marmorated sting bug and also locusts. We are using mainly synthetic pyrethroids and other insecticides. And on the basis of a contract concluded with the Blexi Waste Management Limited, empty containers were removed and later disposed. For example, since 2017, the company in total disposed about 50,000 kilograms of empty containers. At this stage, a recommendation has been issued for the country regarding empty container management, triple rinsing and municipal landfilling of which farmers are currently being apprised. Stefan, you are muted. Thank you. Thank you very much, Nikolos. In the case of the Republic of Tajikistan, it is necessary to talk about legal and factual aspects. Legal aspects. The establishment of the Ministry of Agriculture since 2016, number 16, according to the order of storage and use of empty containers, presupposes a clear rule of empty container management. Of course, it cannot be used on the top. It must be buried in a specially located place. For such places we have two polygons. One is on the north and the other is on the south. The volume and potential of these polygons is quite large in order to store all the packaging from the Republic of Tajikistan. Moreover, the tar that can represent the danger in the form of a fire of danger, it must be covered separately from other types of tar. The ones that contain dangerous waste, including your mother, must be buried in a concrete base. That is, it is not just buried, but it is buried in a concrete base, that is, in concrete, in concrete. In fact, we see that, despite the existence of equipment, our country does not work on collecting this tar. It is responsible for its own tar. What makes the process quite vulnerable from the point of view of responsibility and lack of control in this sphere? Perhaps there will be a different opinion from the specialists of the Ministry of Agriculture since they are developers of this organization. But in my practice, since I consider the constant monitoring of the state of the two polygons, for the last time on these polygons, there was not a single container buried, the one that we carry out ourselves when we clean objects from the fallen pesticides, including tar from the underground. Tiven, you are muted. Sorry, I'm still always thinking and then I forget. Thank you, Umet. And I think we have seen eight countries with eight very different answers and realities. I just want to quickly say that within the project, we are currently in the midst of hiring an international consultant on container, establishing national container management systems. And I hope that at least in four of the countries which have been now on this panel, that we will be able to start soon working on improving what is already there on empty container management. I would like to hand the word back to you so the microphone is yours and I will mute. Okay, thank you very much, Tiven, thank you very much our panelists and also our speakers for sharing your experience and approaches. When we are speaking on pesticide container issues, the problems start with the plastic use it in agriculture. Almost a million tons of plastic use in agriculture pre-juris is absolutely a global problem. The empty container just is a part of it, but they have serious health and environmental risk, adding on the top of the plastic pollution. Therefore, it is particularly important to build with the container management and support the countries to build and maintain the container management system as part of the life cycle management of pesticide, not just as a piece of the it should be part of life cycle management of pesticide. Our key speakers gave us the great picture about the importance of the container management to contribute to reduce the human health and environmental risk. We had the chance to hear different views of the different role players and, for example, understand we understand better how to build a container management system at national level. Also, we understand better how that this there is several challenge, however, also there is a good opportunities. Also, your approach was introduced and the mechanisms which are important to develop a container management system. In our region, there are some progress, however, we need to do a lot in order to establish and strengthen a container management system. The establishment of the system in our region is facing technological legislation, education, and resource resources challenges. However, the multi-stationer approach is the key to tackle with empty pesticide container at national and also a regional level. In this regard, FAEU two months ago launched the hand-in-hand initiative promoting collaboration and cooperation between countries, which could be a good mechanism to support our Central Asia countries to tackle with this problem. So we have all this structure in order to support countries. As mentioned by Steven, the regional POPS project in Central Asia with the support of the network of pesticide management that they are part of the panelists that they share all their experience and views. We will start the assessment of what is the situation with empty container in our region in order to define a strategy in order to define some schemes to manage these problems. And this could be to strengthen the system where already exists, but it's possible that it's necessary also to build new system in several countries. Saying that, and before to say goodbye, I would like to thank all our participants for joining us. This is, we are really appreciate that more than 100 people join us in this webinar. Thanks the organization interpreters and technical team working behind the scenes for making this event possible. I wish everyone a nice day. Thank you very much. Goodbye. And we will invite you the new regional webinar that we will organize, I think, in December. Thank you very much again. And have a nice day. Bye. Thank you very much.