PURPOSE: to improve waste management in the Union in order to facilitate Europe’s transition to a circular economy.
PROPOSED ACT: Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council.
ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the European Parliament decides in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure and on an equal footing with Council.
BACKGROUND: the Commission considers that recent trends suggest that turning waste into a resource is an essential part of increasing resource efficiency and closing the loop in a circular economy. The Union’s economy currently loses a significant amount of potential secondary raw materials that are found in waste streams. In 2013, total waste generation in the EU amounted to approximately 2.5 billion tons of which 1.6 billion tons were not reused or recycled and therefore lost for the European economy. It is estimated that an additional 600 million tons could be recycled or reused. By way of example, only a limited share (43%) of the municipal waste generated in the Union was recycled, with the rest being landfilled (31%) or incinerated (26%).
With respect to waste management, the Union also faces large differences amongst its Member States. In 2011, while six Member States landfilled less than 3% of their municipal waste, 18 landfilled over 50%, with some exceeding 90%. This uneven situation needs to be redressed.
The proposal aims to amend: (i) Directive 2000/53/EC on end-of-life vehicles; (ii) Directive 2006/66/EC on batteries and accumulators and waste batteries and accumulators. It is part of a series of measures on the circular economy which also includes proposals to amend:
- Directive 2008/98/EC on waste;
- Directive 1994/62/EC on package and packaging waste;
- Directive 1999/31/EC on landfill waste.
The proposals build in part on the proposal that the Commission tabled in July 2014 and subsequently withdrew in February 2015. They are in line with the objectives of the Resource Efficiency Roadmap and the 7th Environment Action Programme including:
- full implementation of the waste hierarchy in all Member States;
- decline in absolute and per capita waste generation;
- ensuring high quality recycling and the use of recycled waste as a major, reliable source of raw materials for the Union.
They also contribute to the implementation of the EU Raw Materials Initiative and address the need to prevent food waste.
IMPACT ASSESSMENT: the impact assessment led to the conclusion that the options envisaged will bring the following benefits:
- reduction of the administrative burden in particular for small establishments or undertakings, simplification and better implementation including by keeping targets ‘fit for purpose’;
- more than 170,000 direct jobs could be created by 2035, most of them impossible to delocalize outside the EU;
- GHG emission reduction – more than 600 millions of tons of green house gas could be avoided between 2015 and 2035;
- positive effects on the competitiveness of the EU waste management and recycling sectors as well as on the EU manufacturing sector ;
- reinjection into the EU economy of secondary raw materials which in turn will reduce the dependency of the EU on raw materials imports.
CONTENT: the proposal aims to amend Directives 2000/53/EC, 2006/66/EC and 2012/19/EU in order to improve waste management in the Union, with a view to protecting, preserving and improving the quality of the environment, protecting human health, ensuring prudent and rational utilisation of natural resources and promoting a more circular economy.
The proposed amendments aim to:
- simplify the permit and registration requirements for small establishments or undertakings;
- simplify reporting obligations: it is proposed to repeal provisions obliging Member States to produce implementation reports every three years and use exclusively the statistical data which Member States report every year to the Commission;
- improve the reporting of statistics in order for the Commission to assess compliance with waste legislation across the Member States, by introducing a single entry point for all waste data, deleting obsolete reporting requirements, benchmarking national reporting methodologies and introducing a data quality check report.
- provide that, when preparing the reports on compliance with the targets set out in these Directives, Member States should be required to use the most recent methodology developed by the Commission and the national statistical offices of Member States.