Vote on European waste legislation
10-APR-2008
Dr Caroline Jackson, European Parliament rapporteur on the Waste Framework Directive has won backing from her committee colleagues for amendments that will set mandatory recycling targets for all EU Member States.
This is the first time that the Parliament has intervened to insert such targets and reflects the Environment Committee's concern that recycling must accompany incineration as solutions to the problem of what to do with waste diverted from landfill.
The new targets stipulate that EU Member States will have to achieve recycling rates of 50% for household and similar wastes by 2020, and 70% recycling rates for construction and demolition waste by the same date. It is possible that targets will also be set for manufacturing and industrial waste.
She commented: 'These targets are very important to MEPs. Recycling represents a sustainable way of dealing with waste and many countries need to put more effort into developing recycling schemes. In England local council recycling rates vary enormously from South Shropshire with 53% to Tower Hamlets with 13%. EU targets will be a considerable incentive to countries whose recycling schemes are slow to develop.
'The Committee also recognises that incineration with energy recovery has a part to play in modern waste management. I was delighted that my colleagues voted to accept the idea that energy from waste plants can qualify as 'recovery' rather than 'disposal' operations when they meet the energy efficiency criteria that the new directive sets out.
'MEPs also voted to set an EU wide waste prevention target. This means that by 2012, Member States will have had to stabilise the amount of waste they are producing to an amount no higher than they produced in 2008.'
Dr Jackson now hopes to negotiate a 'second reading agreement' with the representative of the Council Presidency so that the Parliament can give its final agreement to the directive in the June plenary. Otherwise negotiations will continue into the autumn under the conciliation procedure.
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