Last year, the Azores recycled over 10,360 tonnes of packaging waste generated in the selective collection of municipal waste systems. This corresponds to an increase of 9.2% compared to 2014, being the best performance recorded across the country.
 
The Regional Director for the Environment stressed today that the Region registered in 2015 a recovery of 42 kilos of packaging waste per capita. The government official stressed that this figure "is well above the national average per capita, which was around 30 kilos, and the national targets for the year 2017, with 33.29 kilos per inhabitant.”
 
Speaking on the sidelines of a visit to the new mixed waste sorting lines and plastic washing lines of Pico Waste Processing Centre (CPR),  Hernâni Jorge stated that the highest increase of  waste recovered in 2014 was registered  in plastics (35.4%), followed by wood (30.4%), metals (12.2%), paper and cardboard (6.1%) and glass (0.9%).
 
Due to these results, the waste management systems of Flores and Graciosa lead the Green Dot Society's (Sociedade Ponto Verde -SPV) list of packaging waste recovery per capita in 2015.
 
The Regional Director also pointed out that, in addition to the new mixed waste sorting lines and plastic washing lines of Pico CPR, an investment of nearly 400 thousand Euros that was recently completed, it also features identical equipment to one installed at Faial CPR; the latter is also in operation .
 
For Hernâni Jorge, these investments are a clear commitment to the material recovery of packaging waste and a further contribution to the success of public waste management policies, namely those regarding the implementation of the Waste Management Strategic Plan of the Azores (PEPGRA) and the compliance with the targets set for reuse, recycling and reduction of waste disposal in landfills.
 
The Regional Director also pointed out the fact that the infrastructures of Corvo, Flores, Faial, Pico, São Jorge, Graciosa and Santa Maria Processing Centres are already concluded and their operation has already been granted to the respective entities. Moreover, the Government has sealed landfills and dumps on the islands of Flores and Graciosa.
 
On Corvo and Santa Maria, there are ongoing works to seal landfills and there are also ongoing tender procedures for the contract works to be carried out on the islands of Faial and São Jorge.