Europe needlessly wasting resources says FoE

And, the study claims that Europeans are particularly wasteful when it comes to textiles, which 75% of the 5.8 million tonnes discarded every year being disposed of.

The findings were published today (February 14) in a report entitled ‘Less is More: Resource efficiency through waste collection, recycling and reuse’. The report explores the environmental and social impacts of the extraction, use and disposal of three widely-used commodities lithium, aluminium and cotton. It draws in the latest European recycling figures which are from 2010.

The study concludes that in order to move to a zero-waste Europe, higher recycling targets need to be accompanied by targets for reuse and waste prevention.

Under the revised Waste Framework Directive (rWFD) member states are required to achieve a recycling rate of 50% by 2020.

Ariadna Rodrigo, resource use campaigner at Friends of the Earth Europe, said: Europe is still stuck in a system where valuable materials, many of which come at a high environmental and social cost, end up in landfill or incineration. Recycling targets are a good start, but reusing products and materials and preventing waste in the first place wont be the norm until we have EU targets for these too.

There is an urgent need to fundamentally change EU policies and end our current wastefulness. Reducing waste is an easy way to increase Europes resource efficiency. It not only contributes to cutting carbon emissions, it also creates jobs in Europe and reduces dependency on imported raw materials.

Textiles

Looking at textiles, the report notes that 31%, or 350,000 tonnes, of used clothing is landfilled in the UK every year. In addition, it says 14% of post-consumer clothing is reused within the UK, 34% is exported for reuse overseas and 14% is recycled. The remaining 7% is sent to incineration.

The campaign group said the disposal of textiles needs to be reduced. It suggests several ways to achieve this including new regulations.

The report says: Unnecessary landfill and incineration of clothing and other textiles must be minimised, so legally binding national regulations for high collection rates and investment in recycling infrastructure need to be implemented. The creation of jobs in the recycling and reuse of textiles in Europe would benefit the environment and provide much-needed employment.

It adds that extended producer responsibility should also be applied whereby the associated life-cycle environmental costs of clothing are integrated into the price.

Metals

Looking at aluminium, FoE said it offers a strong example of how a material can be endlessly recycled and reused, as long as appropriate infrastructure is put in place. At present, around 50% of aluminium packaging is recycled across the continent.

However, in the case of lithium, FoE noted a much improved scope for improved collection and recycling as very little lithium is collected at present despite a growing number of its use in batteries.

The report concludes: Any delay in drastically improving the continents waste management is a missed opportunity. Reducing waste should be the first step. After that, reuse, repair, and recycling activities need to be prioritised, instead of the continuous extraction of material resources.