Wasted

As waste management works its way up the EU agenda, increasing amounts of legislation is being passed to regulate practises across Europe. However, these efforts will be wasted if the issue of compliance is not given top priority.

“I think the Commission has learnt the lesson of that and with the Waste Framework Directive it will be much more on the ball in following up on compliance”
-Caroline Jackson

An inevitable consequence of European society growing wealthier is of course the generation of increasing levels of waste. In 2006 alone the EU-27 produced around 3 billion tonnes of waste. This figure includes mining waste as well as some 89 million tonnes of hazardous waste. Relative to population the total amount of waste was over 6 tonnes per capita. As the pressure from increased waste levels intensifies, the need for improved waste management practices and waste prevention strategies has become an important priority for the European Union.

Former MEP Caroline Jackson, who acted as rapporteur on the Landfill Directive in 1998 and on the Waste Framework Directive in 2008, has a unique insight into the issue of waste management at EU level. In 1997, the European Parliament received a draft of a directive on landfill reduction from the Commission. Due to her experience in environmental matters, which dated back to 1984 when she joined the Environment Committee, Jackson was asked to become rapporteur and steered the directive through to an eventual agreement in 1999.

During her time as an MEP Jackson has seen vast changes in waste management practice within the EU. "Waste management as an issue has come up the agenda enormously. For the first time the European Union now has, in the Landfill Directive, definite targets for the reduction of waste going to landfill, although the directive doesn't actually spell out what alternative methods should be used and it didn't contain a specific waste hierarchy."

Over the past 25 years Jackson has seen the issue of waste management become increasingly important due to concerns surrounding climate change and global warming and the contribution that landfill makes to this through methane emissions. This has required the EU to look closely at various types of waste disposal in order to gauge their connection with carbon emissions.

As a consequence of this and following on from the Landfill Directive, the Commission has produced a number of specific directives on electronic waste (WEEE), end of life vehicles (ELV), incineration of waste and the shipments of waste, which has seen waste management take a more prominent role on the EU's agenda. Then in 2008 the revised Waste Framework Directive entered into EU regulation.

"The importance of the Waste Framework Directive lies in the fact that it framed, for the first time, general recycling targets for bio-degradable municipal waste. It also looks towards waste recycling targets, which the Commission will have to produce within the next five to seven years and it defines, and puts into community legislation, the waste hierarchy and states that this must be adhered to insofar as is practicable," explains Jackson.

One other benefit that the Waste Framework Directive has brought is that it is helping to change the attitude towards energy from waste, making it possible to designate energy from waste operations as recovery operations, where they fulfil certain energy efficiency criteria, Jackson explains. "So energy from waste is lifted off the bottom of the hierarchy, becomes potentially a recovery operation and possibly becomes a more popular option. But we have to wait and see if that actually happens."

One consequence of the Waste Framework Directive therefore, could be the proliferation of waste-to-energy plants, says Jackson, but in many countries she believes the main encouragement for diverting waste from landfill and into waste-to-energy will be the introduction of an effective landfill tax, as we have now seen in the UK, and the recognition that waste which is difficult to recycle can be a fuel for many Member States which are fuel poor.

The Waste Framework Directive now has until the end of 2010 to come into operation and Jackson believes that there are lessons to be learnt from the Landfill Directive. "The principal lesson is that it is absolutely essential that the European Commission keeps a tight hold on who is doing what in terms of implementation," says Jackson.

She recounts a story of how she went to a follow-up conference on the application of the Landfill Directive some seven years after it was adopted and supposedly put into effect in the Member States, only to find that the Commission had no information at all from six or seven Member States who had simply not communicated what they were doing. "I think the Commission has learnt the lesson of that and with the Waste Framework Directive it will be much more on the ball in following up on compliance."

Jackson believes that the issue of compliance has gathered momentum over the past 25 years as the EU now has about 10 or 15 key directives in place regarding waste and it is useless adopting legislation unless we follow-up on the compliance of. But despite the progress made, Jackson stills sees the issue of compliance as the biggest challenge for European waste policy. "My great sorrow is that the European Environment Agency in Copenhagen plays no part in investigating or policing progress; it can't do that. But I'm very interested in that the Commission has gone out to tender on a contract regarding the feasibility of establishing a European waste inspectorate," admits Jackson. If the EU were to dedicate more resources to the issue of waste management, Jackson believes that this should be in the form of more people being drafted in to enthusiastically pursue the issue of compliance.

But although the situation is less than ideal in terms of compliance, there are aspects that have been a great success. "I think the biggest achievement was the introduction of the waste recycling targets into the Waste Framework Directive, which I simply drafted on the proverbial back of an envelope," says Jackson. And she sees no reason why EU Member States should struggle to comply with legislation in this area.

"I personally don't see why any country should have difficulty in reaching the 50 percent biodegradable municipal waste targets by 2020. I think that these are attainable targets and are really quite mild." But an area that she believes needs further attention and tougher targets is that of demolition and construction waste.

And now that she has relinquished her role as MEP, Jackson only hopes that the good work in waste management will continue without her. "I pray that someone will continue it, but my own experience shows that MEPs are always happier to add to the new legislation on the statute book rather than go back over what has happened. This is always a danger in any elected body, but I will be outside the Parliament encouraging them to continue the work of oversight."

Municipal waste

Municipal waste produced in EU-27 reached 258 million tonnes in 2007, 14% higher than in 1995: around 40% was sent to landfill (a big decrease from 62% in 1995).

Municipal waste treatment varies widely between Member States: less than 5% is landfilled in some countries - Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Belgium - while more than 85% is disposed of in this way in others - Latvia, Lithuania, Cyprus and Malta.

In 2007, each EU citizen produced an average of 522kg of municipal waste.

In 2007, 103 million tonnes of municipal waste was recycled, twice as much as in 1995. Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Austria lead the recycling of municipal waste, with more than 50%. Denmark has the highest share of municipal waste incinerated (53%).

[Source: European Commission]