"This is a victory for those who, like me, believe that energy from waste has a part to play in dealing with the waste we must divert from landfill in future"
Caroline Jackson, MEP
On Tuesday, MEPs agreed to binding targets for waste reduction and the introduction of a five-step waste hierarchy of preference for waste treatment. The European Parliament voted to stabilise the production of wastes at 2008 levels by 2012 and that this should further decline from 2020.
The year 2020 would also be the target date for 50% re-use or recycling of municipal wastes to be achieved and also 70% re-use or recycling of industrial wastes.
The amount of waste is growing in the EU and currently averages at over 500kg per capita with a total production of around 3.5 billion tonnes. The rate of growth exceeds the growth in gross domestic product (GDP). Almost half of this material ends up in landfill.
The vote was backing for Caroline Jackson’s work on revisions to the EU Waste Framework Directive currently proceeding through the European Parliament. Dr Jackson is the MEP for the South West of England and prominent on waste matters in Europe.
MEPs supported a 5-stage waste hierarchy and there was also movement towards classifying fully-recycled products as non-wastes. Incineration also proved to be a contentious issue. Some bans on landfill were also accepted by the Parliament under the Thematic Strategy on the Prevention and Recycling of Waste which was the second major document under consideration in addition to the Waste Framework Directive.
By 651 votes to 19, with 16 abstentions, the European Parliament adopted the proposals to be included in the new Directive. The draft Directive could have a strong influence on medium and long term EU waste management policy.
Caroline Jackson said:
“It is no good the EU being a world leader in waste terminology if it continues to be a world leader in waste generation. I am delighted that the Parliament adopted my report by such a large margin”.
In essence a five-stage waste hierarchy covering prevention - reuse-recycling-recovery-disposal will be included in the new Waste Framework Directive, which will be a first. In addition it was accepted by MEPs that any variations from the hierarchy would only be acceptable when backed by good scientific data. Manufacturers would have the option to submit lifecycle assessment reports (LCAs) and cost-benefit analyses as part of the scientific data to support an alternative treatment option to that indicated by the waste hierarchy.
Incineration
The European Commission proposal to classify incinerators that met a certain energy efficiency criteria as “recovery” rather than “disposal” had previously been rejected by MEPs in the Environment Committee.
But in Parliament there was considerable uncertainty, and different opinions of MEPs resulted in Parliamentary backing for the energy efficiency principle, though Members could not agree on the energy efficiency formula to be applied. This will be subject to further discussion and negotiation.
Generation of power from landfill gas was also accepted to be a recovery operation.
MEPs were more adventurous in voting on the Thematic Strategy and its aims to ban the landfilling of paper, glass, textiles, plastic and metal by 2015. In addition there would be no recyclable waste landfilled by 2020.
"This is a victory for those who, like me, believe that energy from waste has a part to play in dealing with the waste we must divert from landfill in future," Dr Jackson said after the vote.
The Directive on Waste will now pass to the Council of Ministers before later coming back to Parliament for a second reading. Parliament also called on the Commission to propose a Directive on Biowaste by 2008.