The EU’s current residual waste management policy, which favours incineration over prevention and recycling, is neither justified nor compatible with the EU’s ambition of a circular and decarbonised economy, according to a new study published on Wednesday 13 October by the NGO Zero Waste Europe.
This study highlights the need to improve the EU Landfill Directive and the Waste Framework Directive to ensure a radical change in approach. In particular, it stresses that the reduction of residual waste is a crucial tool to ensure that the core principles of the EU’s circular economy agenda are met.
“The prime focus of the EU policy as regards residual waste should be on reduction of waste and emissions”, comments Janek Vӓhk, Climate, Energy and Air Pollution Coordinator at Zero Waste Europe.
In order for the EU to aim at reducing residual waste, the NGO makes the following recommendations:
- elaborate a clear definition of ‘treatment’ to define this as ‘treatment of waste prior to landfilling’;
- acknowledge, in the Landfill Directive, that waste which has been treated is to be regarded as ‘no longer biodegradable’;
- remove the R1 formula in Annex II of the Waste Framework Directive so that municipal waste incineration is no longer able to be classified as ‘recovery’;
- amend the municipal waste landfill minimisation target from the current 10% landfill target by 2035 to a target of 0% of municipal waste landfilled without prior treatment;
- establish a target to reduce residual municipal waste to less than 175kg/inh, to be achieved on the same schedule as the existing Waste Framework Directive recycling targets;
- mandate the use of mixed waste sorting systems of a defined quality at the front of all new incineration plants;
- include incineration facilities within the EU-ETS as a means to encourage progress in the quality of sorting systems for removing plastics from the mixed waste.
See the study: https://bit.ly/30dm42S (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)