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The European Commission has welcomed the European Parliament's
second reading vote approving the agreement reached with the
Council on the revision of the waste framework directive -
the central pillar of EU waste management policy.
European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said - "This
legislation marks a shift in thinking about waste from an
unwanted burden to a valued resource and helps to make Europe
a recycling society. It introduces a modernised approach to
waste management - with clearer definitions, greater emphasis
on prevention of waste and ambitious new recycling goals.
"The clear definitions and waste management principles
it sets out will resolve existing interpretation problems,
reduce the number of Court cases and create a sound legal
basis for the functioning of the waste treatment sector."
Commissioner Dimas thanked the EP rapporteur - Caroline Jackson
- and the Slovenian presidency for their work in achieving
agreement on the revised directive at second reading, thus
avoiding the need for conciliation negotiations.
The revised directive takes into account many of the changes
proposed by the European Parliament. In summary, the directive
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- Sets new recycling targets to be achieved by the Member
States by 2020, including recycling rates of 50% for household
and similar wastes and 70% for construction and demolition
waste;
- Strengthens provisions on waste prevention through an
obligation for Member States to develop national waste prevention
programmes and a commitment from the Commission to report
on prevention and set waste prevention objectives;
- Sets a clear, five-step 'hierarchy' of waste management
options according to which prevention is the preferred option,
followed by reuse, recycling, other forms of recovery and
with safe disposal as the last recourse.
- Clarifies a number of important definitions, such as recycling,
recovery and waste itself. In particular, it draws a line
between waste and by-products and defines when waste has
been recovered enough � through recycling or other treatment
- to cease being waste.
The new directive will also streamline EU waste legislation
by replacing three existing directives -
For further information - DG ENV waste policy homepage -
Click Here
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