Thermal treatment counts as recovery, EP says

Archiv – Waste production should be stabilised by 2012 compared to the 2009 position, says the Environment Committee of the European Parliament. The committee voted to reinstate most of Parliament’s first reading amendments that were not taken up by the Council, and reiterated Parliament’s call for re-use and recycling targets. In contrast with the first reading, incineration of waste can now be classified as recovery.Waste production should be stabilised by 2012 compared to the 2009 position, says the Environment Committee of the European Parliament. The committee voted to reinstate most of Parliament’s first reading amendments that were not taken up by the Council, and reiterated Parliament’s call for re-use and recycling targets. In contrast with the first reading, incineration of waste can now be considered as recovery.
In the second reading report, EU Member States are asked to establish waste prevention programmes not later than five years after the revised directive’s entry into force and to determine appropriate specific targets to achieve the 2012 target and further significant reductions in waste generation by 2020.
The Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) also call for targets for reuse and recycling. By 2020, re-use and recycling rates should be increased to a minimum of 50% by weight for household waste and a minimum of 70% by weight for construction and demolition waste and manufacturing and industrial waste. Member States with less than 5% recycling in either category or no official figures would be given an additional 5 years to reach the targets. By 2015 the Member States would have to set up separate waste collection schemes for at least the following: paper, metal, plastic, glass, textiles, other biodegradable wastes, oils and hazardous wastes.
For MEPs, a crucial aim is to reduce the amount of landfill and incineration, both of which cause pollution. Members were divided over whether incineration should be regarded as a “disposal” or a “recovery” operation. At the first reading, a majority of MEPs had rejected the idea that incineration should be regarded as recovery and had deleted the energy efficiency formula.
In Tuesday’s vote they backed the Commission and Council position that it should be categorised as recovery, provided it meets a certain energy efficiency standard (energy efficiency formula in annex to the directive). Amendments seeking to delete the energy efficiency formula were rejected in a close vote (24 votes to 29). But MEPs voted for the formula to be reviewed by the co-legislators within two years of the directive’s entry into force (28 votes to 27).
It is now up to Member States in Council of Ministers discussions to accept the Committee’s position if they want to achieve an early agreement on the Directive by June.
Environmental watchdogs European Environmental Bureau (EEB) and Friends of the Earth (FOE) welcomed the vote in the Environment Committee reasserting the need for EU-level targets on waste prevention and recycling. But they are not happy with the approval to classify incineration of waste in order to produce energy as “recovery”.
Michael Warhurst of FOE says: ’This re-branding of slightly less inefficient incinerators as recovery is misguided and counter-productive, and we would expect that any future review of this measure will result in its deletion.’
MEPs want to make the application of the five-stage waste hierarchy, which is designed to prevent and reduce waste production, more certain and comprehensive. The hierarchy also lays down an order of preference for waste operations: prevention, re-use, recycling, other recovery operations and, as a last resort, safe and environmentally sound disposal. MEPs want to move the article on the waste hierarchy to a more prominent place in the directive and want Member States to treat it “as a general rule”, rather than as a “guiding principle” as proposed by Council. Departing from the hierarchy may be possible where it is justified by “life cycle” thinking on the overall impacts of the generation and management of such waste.
The 1.8 billion tonnes of waste generated each year in Europe works out at 3.5 tonnes per person. This amount is growing faster than GDP and less than a third of it is recycled. Some Member States landfill 90% of their municipal waste, others only 10%. In September 2005, the European Commission proposed an overhaul of the 1975 directive, largely to lay down rules on recycling and to require Member States to draw up binding national programmes for cutting waste production.
Municipal waste generation averages 530kg per person per year, an average that masks significant differences among Member States. For example, per capita waste generation is 300 to 350 kg per annum in the EU-10 Member States, but around 570 kg in the EU-15. In 2005, 49% of EU municipal waste was disposed of through landfill, 18% was incinerated and 27% recycled or composted.