Mr. Jean-Pierre Schweitzer:

On finance, I refer back to the statement. There is a potential to think about how the fees collected in the EPR system are used. We already have EPR systems for waste electrical and electronic equipment, WEEE, and packaging and will eventually, maybe, for textiles. Given the French example of saving 5% of the funds for reuse, this means 95% of the financing is going to, at best, recycling. There are huge amounts of funds in the EPR system for these product groups. Unless they are directed towards reuse and remanufacturing, the best you can hope to achieve is recycling. There is much improvement to be attained there but it will not go beyond that.

The other area I wanted to make a point on in my statement but did not have time was public procurement. There is a big potential through public procurement to leverage remanufacturing. For example, imagine if all Irish schools remanufactured electronics. It could create a lot of leveraging and financing for remanufacturing in those areas. It could make sense in other areas like furniture. It is something to look into.