The outgoing Estonian Presidency of the Council of the EU and European Parliament negotiators led by Simona Bonafé (S&D, Italy), assisted by the European Commission, reached a provisional inter-institutional agreement on Monday morning 18 December on revision of the waste directives.
A Sunday and a night proved enough to overcome the last outstanding issues in this legislative package that is crucial to the EU’s action plan on the circular economy that was presented in December 2015. The sixth trialogue meeting was therefore the decisive one (see EUROPE 11927).
Agreements concerns the revision of fourth texts: the framework directive on waste, the packaging and packaging waste directive, the landfill directive on the directive on electrical and electronic waste. It clarifies the definitions of key waste concepts and sets new binding targets for waste reduction by 2025, 2030 and 2035. It sets out stricter methods and rules for calculating progress towards these objectives and stricter requirements on the separate collection of waste. It also strengthens implementation of the waste hierarchy by means of economic instruments and measures that seek to prevent wastes reduction. It puts in place minimum requirements for extended producer responsibility schemes.
Estonian Environment Minister and outgoing President of the Environment Council of the EU Siim Kiisler welcomed this success, stating: “In the EU, nearly a third of municipal waste is landfilled, with a limited share of the total being recycled. With this agreement, EU member states are committing to clear EU targets on reuse, recycling and landfilling and rules to improve the management of different waste streams. This will help accelerate our transition towards a circular economy”.
Municipal waste. The recycling of preparation for reuse rate should be 55% in 2025, 60% in 2030 and 65% in 2035. The 2035 target is subject to review. A time derogation of five years will be allowed member states which recycled less than 20% or landfilled more than 60% in 2013.
Landfill. The amount of municipal waste for landfill will be capped at 10% in 2035. There will be a five-year derogation for member states which landfilled more than 60% in 2013. Member states using the derogation will be required, however, to take the necessary measures to reduce the amount of municipal waste landfilled to 25% or less of the total amount of municipal waste generated by 2035.
Packaging. The overall target for recycling packaging waste will be 65% by 2025 and 70% by 2030, with specific objectives for the various materials: plastics - 50% by 2025 and 55% by 2030; wood -25% by 2025 and 30% by 2030; ferrous metals - 70% by 2025 and 80% by 2030; aluminium - 50% by 2025 and 60% by 2030; glass - 70% by 2025 and 75% by 2030; paper and cardboard - 75% by 2025 and 85% by 2030.
A 15% derogation may be used for one of the sub-targets or divided between two sub-targets. When using derogation, the target must not fall below 30%.
For glass and paper/cardboard, the target must not fall below 60% (meaning it cannot fall below the level of 2008 target).
The European Environment Commissioner hailed the agreement: “Modernising our European waste legislation will drive the efforts of member states to cut the amount of waste we generate, to reduce the materials we bury and burn, and to increase re-use and recycling. The deal reached this morning will strengthen our ‘waste hierarchy’ by placing prevention, re-use and recycling clearly above landfilling and incineration. This agreement will make our economies more resource efficient, create jobs and reduce impacts on the environment and resource depletion. The 2030 targets for packaging waste will help to reduce marine pollution and to reach Europe’s targets under the sustainable development goals”. European strategy on plastics is expected at the start of 2018.
The provisions of the inter-institutional agreement still have to be drafted in detail. The terms of the agreement will be presented to the member states ambassadors to the EU on 20 December. It will not, however, be before 2018 that the agreement is discussed and approved by the Council of the EU. This will happen in the first quarter. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)