Momentum builds for European Biowaste Directive

At a meeting of the 27 EU member states' environment ministers – the Council of Ministers – held on Thursday (June 25) in Luxembourg, they endorsed the Commission's plans to run an impact assessment on a potential directive for biodegradable wastes.

And, they urged the Commission – which draws up proposals for new EU legislation – to consider measures encouraging waste prevention, separate collection of biodegradable waste and quality criteria for compost and digestate in any draft Directive they prepare.

In a statement, the Council said it “encourages the Commission to continue the impact assessment with a view to preparing, if appropriate, a EU legislative proposal by 2010.”

However, while “inviting” the Commission to consider whether it should include measures on biowaste prevention and separate collection “where necessary” to promote the quality of material, it stressed that any measures should take into account local conditions.

The Council of Ministers' comments were made as it responded to the green paper on biodegradable waste management that was launched by the European Commission in December 2008, with a view to gauging the need for a future EU Biowaste Directive (see letsrecycle.com story).

In its conclusions, the Council highlighted the importance of the need to address the proportion of the 139 million tonnes of biowaste, such as kitchen, garden and food waste, which ends up in landfill each year.

The Council said it “expresses its concern that biodegradable waste becomes an important source of greenhouse gas emissions and other pollution when deposited in landfills without proper stabilisation”.

Energy recovery

In particular, ministers said the Commission should look at whether composting and anaerobic digestion could be addressed in any proposed Directive, saying the Council “considers that the need for EU legislation especially in relation to recycling of biodegradable waste by composting and energy recovery in biogas stations with subsequent recycling of the digestate should be considered by the Commission as part of their impact assessment”.

And, it claimed that the definition of bio-waste included in the revised Waste Framework Directive did not include all types of biodegradable waste that could be composted or turned into biogas, and called for any legislative proposal to consider including these wastes if they can be treated via composting or anaerobic digestion, explaining that it would “harmonise concepts and terminology in relation to biodegradable waste”.

The Waste Framework Directive's definition of biowaste is: “biodegradable garden and park waste, food and kitchen waste from households, restaurants, caterers and retail premises and comparable waste from food processing plants”.

Compost

The Council also backed the use of compost and digestate produced from biowaste, which it said would be “contributing to a return of organic material and nutrients to the soil”.

But, it added that “low quality” composts and digestates which are not suitable for use on agricultural land should be avoided “as far as possible”.

Timeline

The European Commission's timeline which could potentially lead to a draft Biowaste Directive is expected to involve it holding a consultation during August or September 2009, as part of the impact assessment process.

The Commission has said it has appointed consultants Eunomia and ARCADIS Belgium to help it to prepare the impact assessment.