Talks began today (30 May) to set the future direction of the EU’s laws on waste and recycling up to the end of 2030 – as set out in the Circular Economy package of legislative proposals.
The ‘trilogue’ discussions between the European Parliament the European Council and Commission, have the aim of reaching agreement on the package, including target levels, and are expected to last up to two months.
Binding targets
Groups including Friends of the Earth Europe, the European Environmental Bureau and ‘This is Rubbish’ have called for backing for measures agreed by MEPs in April, which includes binding targets to reduce food waste by 30% by 2025 and 50% by 2050.
According to This Is Rubbish, which started the campaign, the call has been backed by over 50 organisations from 18 EU countries and over 70,000 people through Change.org and Global Citizen petitions.
This is Rubbish claimed that in contrast, the European Council and Commission are advocating targets which are “non-binding, and do not include the food waste hierarchy – placing the European Parliament’s proposals under threat.”
According to the campaign group, the Commission was heavily criticised by the European Court of Auditors (ECA) in January for its ‘inadequate’ actions to solve food waste.
The ECA report examined EU measures on reducing food waste and how its various policy instruments work, and claimed that coordination at European Commission level is “lacking”. (see letsrecycle.com story)
‘Ambition’
Martin Bowman, Campaigner for This Is Rubbish, said: “We condemn the weakness of the European Council and Commission’s positions on food waste, and urgently call on them to up their ambition and unite behind the European Parliament’s ambitious food waste proposals.
“Binding farm-to-fork food waste targets are vitally needed to face the urgent challenges of climate change, land and water depletion, and food poverty”
Mr Bowman continued: “Targets to halve EU food waste by 2030 vitally need to include the whole supply chain from farm to fork, because up to 59% of the EU’s food waste occurs before it gets to the retail shelves, on farms and in factories.
“The European Parliament’s proposals deliver on all of those points, whereas the Council and Commission’s proposals risk leaving us with non-binding targets which sideline huge amounts of food waste in the food industry in favour of an approach skewed towards consumers.
“This is a big opportunity for the Council and Commission to rally round the Parliament’s inspirational food waste targets.”
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