New waste targets to be attained by 2020 as deal set to be approved

Over 1.8 billion tonnes of waste are generated each year in Europe. This amount is growing faster than GDP and less than a third of it is recycled.  Some Member States landfill 90% of their municipal waste, others only 10%. In September 2005, the European Commission proposed an overhaul of the 1975 directive, largely to lay down rules on recycling and to require Member States to draw up binding national programmes for cutting waste production within five years after the entry into force of the directive.

 

The new directive also simplifies the existing legal framework. It integrates the Directive on the disposal of waste oils and the Directive on hazardous waste into the Waste Framework Directive. It sets the definitions and ground rules for all the other pieces of EU legislation relative to waste - it therefore has a direct or indirect impact on them all.

 

Parliament's rapporteur Caroline JACKSON (EPP-ED, UK) commented on the compromise: "The adoption of this directive is an important moment for the European Parliament because we have transformed it. The original Commission proposal addressed highly technical points.  MEPs have now added recycling targets and put a new emphasis on waste prevention.  We have thus given real meaning to the Commission's desire to create a recycling society."

 

"Anyone who still criticises the package we have agreed has to realise that the alternative may not be a better package, but no package at all - a return to the 1975 directive with no targets and with none of the new definitions and clarities which the draft directive will introduce. This is as good as we are going to get - and it's very good."

 

 

MEPs managed in including in the directive a new article on re-use and recycling targets, which was foreseen neither by the original Commissions' proposal nor by the Council Common Position. The compromise states that Member states "shall take the necessary measures designed to achieve the following targets":

 

- by 2020 for re-use and recycling of waste materials such as paper, metal glass from households and similar waste streams: 50 %

 

- by 2020 for non hazardous construction and demolition waste: 70 %

 

A special target for manufacturing and industrial waste, as demanded by MEPs is not included in the compromise but the Commission has to examine the targets by 2020 and eventually reinforce them or consider setting targets for other waste streams.

 

 

The new directive will oblige Member States to establish waste management plans and waste prevention programmes with waste prevention objectives 5 years after entry into force of the directive. Further to this duty the compromise includes a new article on waste prevention. The Commission shall propose - if appropriate - by end 2014 the setting of waste prevention and decoupling objectives for 2020.

 

 

For MEPs, a crucial aim is to reduce the amount of landfill and incineration, both of which cause pollution. Members were divided over whether incineration of municipal solid waste should be regarded as a "disposal" or a "recovery" operation, the latter one being a better option regarding the waste hierarchy. The compromise amendments back the Commission and Council position that it should be categorised as recovery, provided it meets a certain energy efficiency standard (energy efficiency formula in annex II to the directive). According to the Commission this has the effect that only the most energy efficient existing municipal solid waste incinerators will be classified as recovery installations; this will be a strong incentive for increasing the energy efficiency of future incinerators.

 

MEPs nevertheless managed to include a revision after 6 years of the energy efficiency provisions into the compromise.

 

 

The compromise makes the application of the five-stage waste hierarchy, which is designed to prevent and reduce waste production, more certain and comprehensive.  The hierarchy also lays down an order of preference for waste operations: prevention, re-use, recycling, other recovery operations and, as a last resort, safe and environmentally sound disposal. As demanded by the Environment Committee, the article on the waste hierarchy is moved to a more prominent place in the directive. Member States shall treat it "as a priority order", in waste prevention and management legislation rather than as a "guiding principle" as proposed by Council.  Departing from the hierarchy may be possible where it is justified by "life cycle" thinking on the overall impacts of the generation and management of such waste. 

 

 

The 1.8 billion tonnes of waste generated each year in Europe works out at 3.5 tonnes per person. This consists mainly of waste from households, commercial activities (e.g., shops, restaurants, hospitals etc.), industry (e.g. pharmaceutical companies, clothes manufacturers etc.), agriculture (e.g. slurry), construction and demolition projects, mining and quarrying activities and from energy generation.

 

Municipal waste generation averages 530kg per person per year, an average that masks significant differences among Member States. For example, per capita waste generation is 300 to 350 kg per annum in the EU-10 Member States, but around 570 kg in the EU-15.

 

In 2005, 49% of EU municipal waste was disposed of through landfill, 18% was incinerated and 27% recycled or composted.