Page 49 from: August 2011

49August 2011

Each EU citizen produces on average just over half a tonne of municipal waste a year.
If it were badly managed, this waste could pose

serious environmental and health risks, and so

the EU has developed various laws since the

1970s to minimise those risks and to reap the

benefits of proper waste management.

Through the setting of minimum targets on

collection, reuse, recycling and recovery of spe-

cific waste streams, and through the setting of

quality standards for specific waste manage-

ment operations such as landfilling, the EU has

developed minimum standards for environ-

mental and health protection and has created

a level playing field within the EU. In 2005, with

the adoption of the Thematic Strategy on Waste

Prevention and Recycling, the EU set itself the

goal of becoming a Recycling Society.

The underlying principle of waste management

in the EU is the waste hierarchy, which means

that priority should be given to waste prevention,

followed by preparation for reuse, recycling and

energy recovery. Disposal of waste via landfilling

or incineration (without energy recovery) should

be used only as a last resort. In 2008, with the

adoption of the new EU Waste Framework Direc-

tive, this five-step waste hierarchy became legal-

ly binding for all EU member states. This means

that, in their national waste prevention and man-

agement planning and legislation, member states

need to ensure that the waste hierarchy is applied.

Moving up the hierarchy
The objective is for member states to move their

waste management up the hierarchy. The Waste

Framework Directive sets ambitious targets to

help in the achievement of the European Com-

mission’s long-term aim – such as, for example, to

recycle 50% of municipal waste and to recover

70% of construction waste by 2020. Member

states must prepare waste management plans

covering type, quantity, sources and collection

systems. Waste prevention plans must also be

drawn up with a view to breaking the link between

economic growth and waste generation by 2013.

The political attention focused on better waste

management is increasing and this is partially

linked to concerns about our future access to raw

materials. According to the most recent projec-

tions, demand for raw materials is expected to

increase dramatically in the coming years. The

world’s population will continue to grow, as will

the per-capita consumption of the middle class-

es emerging around the world. It has been esti-

mated that global extraction of resources will

surge from 58 billion tonnes in 2005 to more

than 100 billion tonnes in the year 2030, repre-

senting an increase of 75% in 25 years.

While the risks for our economies and well-

being are clear, and the medium-term implica-

tions for companies of these constraints are also

obvious, our economic system still encourages

inefficient use of resources by pricing below true

costs. Two global policy challenges will most

likely determine the global agenda for the dec-

ades to come: sustainability and global govern-

ance. The World Business Council on Sustain-

able Development estimates that by 2050 we will

need a four- to tenfold increase in resource effi-

ciency, with significant changes needed by 2020.

The EU must take a leadership role: we have a

democratic, social market-based economy, and

a multi-state governance system with the rule

Rosalinde van der Vlies:

’The opportunities
within the waste
sector should not

be wasted.’

of law and a model of consensual, forward-

looking policy development. In the waste area,

EU rules have been a model for third countries

which have started to develop similar laws – for

instance, on the restriction of the use of hazard-

ous substances in electronics (based on the EU’s

Restriction of Hazardous Substances in Electri-

cal and Electronic Equipment Directive), and

on the collection and recycling of electronic

waste (based on the EU’s Waste Electrical and

Electronic Equipment Directive).

Facing up to the challenges
In order to respond to this challenging situa-

tion, the European Commission adopted – in

January and February of this year – four key,

interconnected Communications which estab-

lish a longer-term vision for Europe, with links

to waste and resource management.

The first one is the EU2020 Strategy which sets

the vision for the EU’s social market economy

of the 21st century. Its aim is to ensure that the

EU emerges stronger from the crisis and devel-

ops a smart, sustainable and inclusive economy

with high levels of employment, productivity

and social cohesion. Seven flagships are

designed to move the EU towards these objec-

tives, one of which concerns resource efficiency.

The Communication on a ‘Resource Efficient

Europe’ published in February this year pro-

vides a basis for the future actions of the Euro-

pean Commission to improve resource effi-

ciency. Building a more resource-efficient

Europe is crucial to the EU’s economic and

ecological security, and the Communication

provides a strategic framework that should

deliver a more sustainable use of natural

resources and a shift towards resource-efficient,

low-carbon growth in Europe.

This Communication recognises that resources

are often used inefficiently because the informa-

In 2008, this five-step waste hierarchy became legally binding for all EU member states.

most sustainable

product

waste

avoidance

reuse

recycling

recovery
(including waste-to-energy)

disposal
least sustainable

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