On Wednesday 18 March, European organisations dealing with sustainable resource management welcomed the Circular Economy Action Plan 2.0 presented by the Commission (see EUROPE 12444/1), but are disappointed that it does not include new efforts to divert waste from landfills, when 175 million tonnes of waste are still landfilled in Europe each year and generate more than 140 million tonnes of CO2-equivalent emissions, they stressed.
In order to ensure that the necessary measures are taken to prevent the leakage of waste streams suitable for recycling or recovery to large-scale landfills, these organisations have set out their expectations in a joint press release.
They call on the European Commission and policy makers to use the most effective measures to minimise large-scale landfilling as soon as possible by ensuring the implementation of existing municipal waste targets.
They also call for an integrated approach to industrial and commercial waste, with measures intended to stimulate recycling and other forms of recovery and to reduce the landfilling of these waste streams, by setting a cap for commercial and industrial waste (recyclable or recoverable) in the EU Landfill Directive, as was done for municipal waste in 2018. This would create a level playing field in the EU Member States, they argue. The cap should take into account the need for a more circular waste management chain.
The signatories of the press release are CEWEP (European Confederation of Waste to Energy Plants), ESWET (European Suppliers of Waste to Energy Technology), Euroheat & Power, FEAD (European Federation of Waste Management and Environmental Services) and Municipal Waste Europe. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)