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MEPs have today adopted new EU rules designed to tackle the 1.8 billion tonnes of waste generated each year in Europe.
Today's vote followed a series of negotiations between the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers (representing the EU's 27 Member State governments), given that both Parliament and Council have to agree the new rules before they can come into effect. Among the main aspects of the new rules, as voted today:
• A target of 50% re-use or recycling by 2020 of waste materials such as paper, metal or glass from households;
• A target of 70% re-use or recycling for non-hazardous construction and demolition waste, also by 2020;
• An obligation on EU Member States to set up waste management plans and waste prevention programmes;
• A setting-up in law of a five-category hierarchy for dealing with waste. In order of preference: prevention; re-use; recycling; recovery; safe and environmentally-sound disposal.
A majority of MEPs also backed a definition of incineration as a 'recovery' operation, provided it meets certain energy efficiency standards.
This was the 2nd reading in the European Parliament where each amendment adopted needed at least 392 votes (50% + 1). The text now passes to the Council of Ministers, which is expected to confirm today's vote at one its next meetings.
For further details, see: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/expert/infopress_page/064-31746-168-06-25-911-20080616IPR31745-16-06-2008-2008-true/default_en.htm
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Excerpts from Monday's debate (16 June 2008) in Strasbourg
Caroline Jackson MEP (Conservative, South West): May I begin by drawing attention once again to my declaration of interests, which I made on the record, and which cites my membership of the Environmental Advisory Board of Shanks plc… My fellow board members include the chairman of the EU Scientific Advisory Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks and a member of the Green Alliance.
Turning to the Directive… firstly, we have added recycling targets to the text. That is a very significant achievement since these were not in the original proposal, and this is the first time that recycling targets for household waste have appeared in EU legislation. It is entirely due to Parliament that they are there.
Secondly, we have added new provisions on the prevention of waste, in Article 8a. These will mean that the Commission has to report on the evolution of EU waste generation and the scope for waste prevention by 2011, and by 2014 must produce proposals for waste prevention… Thirdly, we have firmly placed the famous EU waste hierarchy in EU law for the first time…We can celebrate a minor victory in getting the Council to agree that the hierarchy shall apply ‘as a priority order’ in waste prevention and management legislation… Fourthly, we have secured agreement to place better emphasis on hazardous waste management… Fifthly, we have also ensured that priority will continue to be given to the regeneration of waste oils.
In conclusion, the Directive specifies the energy efficiency criteria for incineration, with energy recovery to be classed as a recovery operation rather than disposal. That is the best deal available.
John Bowis MEP (Conservative, London): Waste goes on rising; it rises faster than the growth of our economies. It grows fastest in some areas like municipal waste, and that is why we need to take action. My own country sets one of the worst examples in terms of waste. The Netherlands we salute as setting the best example. However, we all need to catch up. We all need to have more recycling so as to meet the terms of the hierarchy: we need to meet the recycling targets and prevention targets and so forth.
Jill Evans MEP (Plaid Cymru, Wales): From the very start, the main issues for us were the adoption of binding targets on waste reduction and recycling and opposition to the reclassification of incineration as energy recovery. The final compromise does not have a legally binding target for waste reduction… Although recycling and reuse targets have been set at 50% and 70% and the Member States are legally obliged to put measures in place to achieve these targets, the targets themselves are not binding.
Manufacturing and industrial waste, which have a huge potential for reuse and recycling, have been left out altogether. Incineration cannot be viewed as a waste management option on a par with recycling and reuse; this will just attract further investment into incinerators and directly undermine the waste hierarchy.
Chris Davies MEP (Lib. Dem, North West): We all recognise that the size of our waste mountain needs to be reduced. One British supermarket has recently announced that by 2012 it intends to reduce the use of packaging by 25% and its use of carrier bags by 33%. It wants to ensure that waste food is converted to energy by anaerobic digestion. It wants to restrict the number of materials used in packaging to just four which are easy to recycle or compost and it wants to print simple symbols on all packaging to make it easy for customers to recycle or compost their waste. Now all this is a matter of political will. Reducing waste is a matter of political will and that will can be strengthened by European Union law.
Jim Allister (Ind., Northern Ireland): I do not understand the reticence of some in facing up to the obvious advantage of promoting energy from waste. I fear some colleagues feel so precious about their recycling and anti-incineration dogmas that they would sacrifice the opportunity of heat and power from waste. In that, I have to say, I believe they are profoundly mistaken. On a related note, could I say that I very strongly favour maximising the definition of ‘recovery’ under the Directive, making it indisputably clear that energy from waste represents recovery, not disposal, of waste.
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Debate in the European Parliament of 16 June 2008 in the speakers' original language will be available at:
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/activities/plenary/cre.do?language=EN
Report for 2nd reading on the proposed revision of the framework directive on waste (A6-0162/2008) by Caroline Jackson MEP:
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+REPORT+A6-2008-0162+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN&language=EN
Text adopted by the European Parliament (17 June 2008) will be available at:
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/activities/plenary/ta.do?language=EN#
Summary of procedure in the Legislative Observatory
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/file.jsp?id=5303132
UK MEPs contact details:
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