The EU Environment Committee has recently adopted a proposal to revise the EU framework directive on waste which currently dates from 1975. Their proposals are broadly in line with the earlier position taken by the European Parliament and European Commission which press for EU wide rules on recycling and, more specifically, for Member States to draw up binding national programmes for cutting waste production.
Currently, less than one third of the 1.8 billon tonnes of waste generated across the EU is reused or recycled. Given the environmental implications of this, the EU institutions have proposed several important alterations to the Framework Directive on Waste.
The key features of the proposal:
- Member States shall be required to establish waste prevention programmes within five years of the directive being implemented. 2012 and 2020 shall be the key dates against which targets should be set.
- The minimum targets which Member States shall be able to set regarding the proportion of waste to be re-used and recycled by 2020 shall be 50% in respect of household waste and 70% in respect of construction, demolition, manufacturing and industrial waste.
- Member States shall be required to be set up separate waste collection schemes regarding paper, metal, plastic, glass, textiles, other biodegradable wastes, oils and hazardous wastes.
- An enhanced five stage hierarchy in waste, designed to reduce waste production, shall be implemented. The EU Environment Committees’ position is that this shall be treated “as a general rule” and not merely as a “guiding principle” as the council initially proposed. This hierarchy shall outline the order of preference for waste disposal operations as: prevention, re-use, recycling, other recovery operations and, as a last resort, safe and environmentally sound disposal.
It is interesting to note that under the current EU Environment Committee, Commission and Council proposals, incineration facilities dedicated to processing municipal solid waste only shall be categorised as 'recovery' and not 'disposal' operations, provided that they meet certain defined energy efficiency standards. Consequently, post implementation of the current proposals, the incineration of municipal solid waste, at least in Waste Framework Directive terms, will move up the waste hierarchy.
Further, such facilities will not require to be permitted under the Waste Framework Regime (although it is presumed that they will still fall under the IPPC regime for other reasons). These changes also draw into question whether government in the United Kingdom will see this re-categorisation as justifying energy from waste treatment being considered as more akin to re-use and recycling and thus moving away from the ‘one rung above landfill’ approach that has been prevalent, particularly in Scotland.
In line with EU legislative procedure, a Second Reading Agreement in respect of this directive is presently being negotiated with the Council. Consequently the directive is currently anticipated to receive its’ final assent from the European Parliament in June 2008.
Further information can be found at:
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/pdf/directive_waste_en.pdf
If you have any queries on the above please contact Stephen Colliston on 0131 656 2000 or stephen.colliston@todsmurray.com
