Europe – such a waste, but more of it will be recycled by 2012

The European Parliament‘s Environment Committee has recommended a report that the European Union should cut waste and Members States and have mandatory recycling, although those who can‘t comply with current targets will be given five more years to do so.

New Europe reports that the committee voted to reinstate most of the parliament‘s initial amendments that were not taken up by the European Council, and reiterated parliament‘s call for re-use and recycling targets. The new targets stipulate that EU Member States will have to achieve recycling rates of 50 percent for household and similar wastes by 2020, and 70 percent recycling rates for construction and demolition waste by the same date. It is possible that targets will also be set for manufacturing and industrial waste.

Over 1.8 billion tonnes of waste are generated each year in Europe. This amount is growing faster than the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and less than a third of it is recycled. Some EU countries landfill 90 percent of their municipal waste, others only 10 percent. 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. A report from MEP Caroline Jackson of the United Kingdom was approved by a vote of 42-14 and 14 abstentions, MEPs called for total waste production to be stabilised by 2012, compared to the 2009 position. EU countries are asked to establish waste prevention programmes not later than five years after the revised directive‘s entry into force and to determine appropriate specific targets to achieve the 2012 target and further significant reductions in waste generation by 2020.

MEPs also called for targets for reuse and recycling. By 2020, re-use and recycling rates should be increased to a minimum of 50 percent by weight for household waste and a minimum of 70 percent by weight for construction and demolition waste and manufacturing and industrial waste. Countries with less than five percent recycling in either category or no official figures would be given an additional five years to reach the targets.

By 2015, EU countries would have to set up separate waste collection schemes for at least the following: paper, metal, plastic, glass, textiles, other biodegradable wastes, oils and hazardous wastes. Jackson said, “Recycling represents a sustainable way of dealing with waste and many countries need to put more effort into developing recycling schemes. In England local council recycling rates vary enormously from .. 53 percent to … 13 percent. EU targets will be a considerable incentive to countries whose recycling schemes are slow to develop. ” A crucial aim is to reduce the amount of landfill and incineration, both of which cause pollution.

Members were divided over whether incineration should be regarded as a “disposal” or a “recovery” operation. They backed the Commission and Council position that it should be categorised as recovery, provided it meets a certain energy efficiency standard. At the first reading, a majority of MEPs had rejected the idea that incineration should be regarded as recovery and had deleted the energy efficiency formula. MEPs want to make 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. The 1.8 billion tonnes of waste generated each year in Europe works out to 3.5 tonnes per person. This consists mainly of waste from households, commercial activities such as (shops, restaurants, hospitals, etc.), industry (pharmaceutical companies, clothes manufacturers etc.), agriculture, construction and demolition projects, mining and quarrying activities and from energy generation.

Per capita waste generation is 300 to 350 kilogrammes per year in the original 10 Member States, but around 570 kilogrammes in the EU-15. In 2005, 49 percent of EU municipal waste was disposed of through landfill, 18 percent was incinerated and 27 percent recycled or composted. This is the first time that the parliament has intervened to insert such targets and reflects the Environment Committee‘s concern that recycling must accompany incineration as solutions to the problem of what to do with waste diverted from landfill.