The consultation was published by the European Commission alongside a scoreboard which uses the indicators to measure EU member states performance so far.
The indicators cover a number of areas, including the amount of municipal waste generated per capita and the amount sent for recycling or to landfill.
They were put out for consultation as part of the Commissions work under the Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe, which was published last year (see letsrecycle.com story). Under the roadmap, the Commission made a number of commitments, including reviewing existing targets for prevention, reuse, recycling, recovery and landfill diversion targets in 2014.
In the Roadmap, the Commission said that it would engage with stakeholders to develop indicators and potential targets. Once finalised, the indicators will be used to monitor progress and allow for benchmarking and comparisons between member states.
The proposed indicators differ slightly from those in the Roadmap. In terms of waste and recycling, the indicators have shifted the focus from all waste types to municipal waste only.
The Commission said this is to allow for country comparisons without the data being skewed by other types of waste, such as construction and demolition, which can be considerably higher for some EU member states.
Consultation
Through the consultation, the Commission is aiming to gather a wide-range of and ideas on how it can best measure, monitor and communicate the interlinkages between the economy and natural resources. The consultation is open until October 22 2012.
Once finalised, the Commission said the indicators will be used to:
- Measure the general progress towards a resource efficient, low-carbon economy to guide public and private decision-makers and monitor the implementation of the milestones of the Roadmap;
- Allow for an informed discussion of whether targets can be set in the context of resource efficiency;
- Communicate the importance of the link between resources and the economy.
- Scoreboard
The consultation is accompanied by a scoreboard which maps out EU member states performance in resource efficiency using the indicators. The Commission said the scoreboard is an intermediate step on the way to developing an agreed set of targets and indicators by 2013.
Using the 2010 figures, the scoreboard shows that Latvia generated the least amount of municipal waste per person, with just over 300kg. At the other end of the scale Cyprus generated 760 kg of municipal waste per person. The EU average was 502 kg.
In terms of municipal waste recycling in 2010, the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium and Germany all broke the 60% barrier, whereas Slovakia, Lithuania, Romania and Bulgaria trailed behind with recycling rates of less than 10%.
Platform
The publication of the survey follows the first meeting of the European Resource Efficiency Platform in June 2012 (see letsrecycle.com story). The Platform is part of a wider Commission move to bring together stakeholders and promote dialogue on resource efficiency challenges and opportunities.
Related Links
In a bid to stimulate debate, the Commission has also launched an online platform where consultations and exchanges will be posted over the coming months. The online platform is currently host to two flash surveys which poll stakeholders on what should be working priorities for policy development on the green economy.
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