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ENVIRONMENTAL advocacy groups described the recent vote
by the European Parliament as a big step forward for
sustainable waste policies in Europe.
The
Friends of the Earth Europe (FoE-Europe), European
Environmental Bureau (EEB), Global Alliance for
Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) and Health Care Without
Harm (HCWH) welcomed the vote by the Members of the
European Parliament (MEPs) on February 13, 2007
prioritizing waste prevention, reuse and recycling as
key elements for dealing with waste in Europe, and
setting binding targets for waste reduction.
The
groups are particularly pleased by the Parliament’s
decisions on two controversial aspects of the proposed
legislation: firstly, to reject the commission’s
proposal to treat energy recovery from burning rubbish
as equally preferable to recycling; and secondly, to
reject a proposal to reclassify some incinerators as
recovery facilities.
The 727
MEPs received some 25,932 e-mails from concerned
citizens in 25 EU countries, sending a strong message to
the European Commission that it needs to rethink its
proposals for
Europe’s waste
strategy.
In a
statement, Joan-Marc Simon, Waste Policy advisor to HCWH
and GAIA, said, “We are pleased that the Parliament has
taken such a progressive stance on waste issues. Now we
just need the commission to redraft their proposals and
we will be well on the way to sustainable waste policies
in Europe.”
“MEPs
have supported European targets for recycling and waste
prevention, which will help Europe’s economy become more
resource efficient, and reduce our impacts on climate
change. Their support for clear legislation supporting
prevention, reuse and recycling, and their insistence on
a biowaste directive, will make a real difference in
creating a sustainable Europe,” said Dr. Michael
Warhurst, Waste and Resources campaigner, FoE-Europe,
adding that “national governments must also support
these important measures.”
Doreen
Fedrigo, Waste Policy officer, EEB, in a statement said:
Parliament has added its voice to those of many European
Union (EU) countries by rejecting the Commission’s
proposal to reclassify incinerators as ‘recovery’
facilities. This would have encouraged countries with
strict, costly facilities, like Germany to export waste
to cheaper ones, such as the newer member-states which
might have become the ‘burning grounds’ of Europe. The
Commission now needs to rethink its approach.”
Parliament voted for each member-state to recycle 50
percent of municipal waste and 70 percent of industrial,
manufacturing, construction and demolition waste by
2020. It also voted for governments to set up separate
collection of key recyclable materials, and for the
European Commission to propose a Directive on Biowaste
by June 2008. In addition, Parliament voted that EU
countries should stabilize their waste production by
2012, challenging the outdated idea that we must always
produce more and more waste.
Waste is
a growing problem for the EU, which produces more than
500kg of waste per person per year, a figure that
outstrips GDP growth.
Official
statistics show that of the 3.5 billion tons of waste
produced by the EU each year, less than a third of the
municipal waste is recycled and almost half goes to
landfill sites. |
