Tough negotiations ahead over European waste directive (14.02.2007)
The European Union looks set for difficult negotiations over the new Directive on Waste later this year, after its Parliament voted yesterday for ambitious new waste prevention and recycling targets.
The vote saw support for a five-stage waste hierarchy, producer responsibility and for a move towards redefining fully-recycled products as non-wastes. There was also disagreement among MEPs over the issue of incineration.
MEPs voted to require Member States to draw up plans to reduce their waste production. But central to the vote was a bid to reduce the 1.3 billion tonnes of waste produced in Europe each year.
The Directive on Waste is being developed to succeed the Waste Framework Directive adopted in 1975 and revised in 1991, which sets the basic rules for waste management in Europe.
MEPs in the European Parliament, Strasbourg, also yesterday voted on the proposed Thematic Strategy on Waste Prevention and Recycling, a non-binding document that is to set the scene for possible future EU waste Directives.
The Parliament voted to include tough new landfill bans within the Strategy.
DirectiveThe 1st reading of the Directive on Waste saw a majority voting to add targets to halt the growth in waste generation in Europe at 2008 levels from 2012, with Member States required to draw up national waste prevention programmes.
New EU targets to start reducing waste production from 2020 would have to be set by 2010 under the new proposals.
The full Parliament also voted yesterday to set targets for re-use and recycling. These included re-using or recycling 50% of municipal waste by 2020 and 70% of waste from commerce and industry.
MEPs voted by 651 votes to 19 (with 16 abstaining) to adopt proposals within the report from the Dr Caroline Jackson, the British MEP leading the Parliament's negotiation of the Directive. This included setting a new five-stage waste hierarchy within proposed EU waste policy for the first time.
Some disagreement came over how binding should the hierarchy be in keeping Member States prioritising waste reduction, re-use, recycling, recovery and disposal in that order. Ultimately, it was agreed to allow EU states to depart from the hierarchy concerning the treatment of certain waste streams "on the basis of established, publicly available scientific criteria.
IncineratorsMixed messages came from the vote concerning incineration, with the Parliament's Members divided on whether municipal waste incinerators could be classified as "recovery" plants.
Dr Jackson said Members had voted that incinerators would be able to qualify as recovery plants, but had not agreed on the formula or efficiency criteria to be applied. This could now form the basis for further negotiations.
The generation of power from landfill gas was also recognised as a recovery process.
"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.
Other measures added to the Directive on Waste included formally including the producer responsibility or "polluter pays" principle to EU waste policy framework, extra controls on hazardous wastes and new articles on landfill disposal.
There was also a request for the Commission to develop a Directive on Biowaste – kitchen and garden waste – by June 2008.
A call for the Commission to propose legislation to define when recycled materials or products are no longer deemed to be waste also gained support. This would see materials or products that have been fully recycled (perhaps according to a standard) no longer falling under waste legislation.
The Directive on Waste will now be considered by the Council of Ministers – the ministers from individual EU Member State governments – before being returned for a second reading by the Parliament later this year. It is expected that the Directive will ultimately be decided by a series of conciliation talks between the two sides during the autumn.
Thematic StrategyMeanwhile, the debate on the proposed Thematic Strategy on Waste Prevention and Recycling also saw MEPs voting to be more ambitious.
They also voted to add requirements for separate collection systems be set up for materials subject to the landfill bans.