Tabled amendments for the Directive now include altered deadline dates – including the delaying of material specific recycling targets by one year – as well as the scrapping of the wood recycling target and the possibility of including the composting of biodegradable plastics in the plastic recycling target.
The European Parliament environment committee is holding discussions over amendments tabled since the Council of Ministers reached a common position in 2008. A second reading of the Directive revisions, led by Dutch MEP Dorette Corbey, will see the final vote in the European Parliament in June or July 2003.
Speaking in Brussels about her final amendments to packaging waste recovery targets, Ms Corbey said: “I am disappointed with the [Council of Ministers] common position text in that it is a significant weakening of the original proposal and does not take into account the views expressed by a majority of Parliament. In my report for second reading I propose to set the recovery target at 65% and the recycling target between 60 and 80%. These targets should be achieved by the end of 2007.”
This 2007 deadline forms a compromise position from Parliament's request for a deadline at 2006 and the Council's demand for 2008. However, in Ms Corbey's amendments she is now suggesting that proposed material specific recycling targets be achieved by the later deadline of 2008.
Other amendments include a deletion of the material specific recycling target for wood (previously at 15%) and the inclusion of the composting of biodegradable plastic in the material specific plastic target.
This will see the European Parliament environment committee discussing the following packaging waste recovery and recycling targets:
Overall Recovery: 65% (by December 31, 2007)
Overall recycling: 60% – 80% (by December 31, 2007)
Material specific recycling: (by December 31, 2008)
Glass: 60%
Paper: 60%
Metals: 50%
Plastics: 22.5% (including the recycling of biodegradable plastics by composting)
Wood: no target
Ms Corbey sees the inclusion of the composting of biodegrable plastics in the plastics target as providing an incentive for EU Member States to encourage the use of biodegradable plastics. The Environment Committee is looking at ways to include the composting process more broadly within the Directive.
Commenting on the removal of the wood material specific target, a statement from the rapporteur said: “It is suggested to leave it to Member States to encourage recycling of wood, which would count towards achieving the overall recycling target. The rapporteur notes that the sum of the material specific recycling targets is not sufficient to reach the overall-recycling target. The recycling of other materials can help to fill this 'gap'.”
Recovery
Meanwhile, a position paper from the European Environmental Bureau has called for the European Parliament to remove the packaging waste recovery target altogether. The EEB, a think tank formed of NGO members, believes the recovery target encourages the incineration of packaging waste.
The EEB's EU policy director Roberto Ferrigno said: “The EEB calls for the deletion of the definition of energy recovery and the overall recovery target, and views any provision encouraging energy recovery as legally questionable and politically untenable.”
The EEB also criticised the proposed target deadlines as being “too flexible”, stating that a stricter deadline of December 31 2006 should be set, except for Portugal, Greece and Ireland, for which it suggested December 31 2009.
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