Yesterday, it took place an online consulting workshop on the introduction of Deposit Return System (DRS) for packaging wastes, which was attended by representatives of government agencies, various international and non-governmental organizations, representatives of the scientific and private sector, as well as other sectorial stakeholders.
In attendance were Head of the Department of International Cooperation R. Grigoryan, Head of Strategic Policy Department of the Ministry of Environment L. Avetisyan.
The objective of the event was to submit the report on the economic analysis of Deposit Return System (DRS) models to the stakeholders, which was performed by a Lithuanian expert based on international experience and best practices.
The study was conducted within the framework of the European Union for Environment  (EU4Environment) project with the support of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The initiative will assist Armenia in assessing investment needs for the development of Deposit (prepaid disposal fee) Return System (DRS)  in the country.
 The introduction of the system will make it possible to reduce the amount of wastes, increase the volume of recycling of relevant materials, proposing the opportunity to collect more high quality materials, facilitating the recycling process. An efficient, productive and convenient system can lead to a sharp increase in investments.
Armenia has recently completed a preliminary study of gap analysis to establish a deposit system to comprehend what legislative amendments are demanded for the system functioning. Therefore, the implementation of this economic analysis of the System models will allow to identify the most suitable DRS versions for Armenia.