Revised recycling and landfill diversion targets will be released in ‘a few weeks’, European Commissioner for Environment Janez Potočnik has announced.

Speaking at the opening of the 16th European Forum on Eco-Innovation on Monday (7 April), Potočnik outlined that the European Commission (EC) will be releasing new targets so that Europe does not ‘waste the potential of waste’.

He said: “We did not invent the idea of the circular economy, but today, in the face of global pressure on resources, the economic and business arguments for it have become overwhelming.

“We must not waste the potential of waste. That is why, in a few weeks I will present revised targets for recycling waste and for reducing landfill. And this will central to a more comprehensive approach to moving to a circular economy, particularly in the sectors of buildings and food.

“Much of the work to achieve this will have to be done by member states and the private sector; but the European Commission is also working to shape the framework conditions to accelerate the transition to circular economy.”

Waste target review background

The EC began consulting on amending European waste management targets last summer, in the hopes of ‘identifying the issues and proposing possible solutions to the targets in the Waste Framework Directive, the Landfill Directive and the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive’.

Headed by environmental consultancy Eunomia Research & Consulting (Eunomia), the review was launched to reassess clauses in the directives and bring these in line with the EC’s ambition of promoting resource efficiency as detailed in the Roadmap on Resource Efficiency and the 7th Environmental Action Programme.

The move was largely welcomed by those in waste and resources industry, with Eunomia finding that eighty-four per cent of respondents supported an increase in recycling rates, while over half would like to see targets introduced for waste prevention.

UK government does not support revised targets

However, the UK government said it would not support the introduction of new EU waste targets, or extending current targets, as they ‘would be unlikely to improve the current system and could result in perverse or unintended outcomes’.

Writing in its response to the consultation, the UK government said the following changes proposed in the consultation could ‘result in perverse or unintended outcomes’:

• changing the targets or definitions for 2020 set out in the Waste Framework Directive;
• implementing new environmental targets;
• extending landfill bans or restrictions for specific materials at an EU level, ‘unless there is a clear economic and environmental case to do so’.

Referring to the implementation of new environmental targets, the government response reads: ‘[T]he EU environmental policy framework is largely complete and new environmental targets, including targets on waste prevention and reuse, are unlikely to be needed unless new evidence becomes available that the benefits of new targets would outweigh the costs.

‘Any new environmental targets would require clear and robust justification supported by full impact assessments, including evidence that they would not adversely impact economic growth and that voluntary action would not deliver the required outcomes. This evidence base is not currently in place.’

The Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (Defra) added that the development of new indicators ‘should be the focus ahead of any proposals for new targets, so that these would be demonstrably economically-efficient, cost-effective, realistic and achievable’.

Defra ‘stepping back’ from waste

Defra has been distancing itself from waste policy recently however, after Resource Minister Dan Rogerson announced that, due to funding cuts, from April 2014 Defra will be ‘stepping back’ from waste.

However, the Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (EFRA) Committee recently launched an inquiry into how Defra’s reduction in municipal waste management activities may impact the sector.

As such, EFRA is calling on members of the industry to submit written evidence on their thoughts on this, as well as the following issues:

• the ability of existing recycling policy measures to ensure that England reaches the EU target of recycling 50 per cent of household waste by 2020;
• whether England’s national recycling targets should be higher than those stipulated by the EU;
• the pros and cons of compulsory household waste recycling;
• the role of businesses and households in municipal waste recycling and recovery;
• whether England has the right balance of waste treatment technologies between anaerobic digestion, incineration with energy recovery and gasification to produce fuel/heat/power;
• the extent to which increasing the capacity of thermal treatment plants could impact England’s municipal waste recycling rates;
• whether anaerobic digestion is the best option available to deal with food and other biowaste;
• whether the government’s Anaerobic Digestion Strategy and Action Plan has substantially increased the use of AD; and
• the feasibility of the introduction of a ban on landfill and/or incineration in England.

Read more about the EC’s waste targets review project or the EFRA inquiry.