The European Commission has praised the United Kingdom for achieving a “rapid increase” in its municipal waste recycling rate since 2000, but has warned of a levelling off among the top performing EU member states.
The Commission made the comments in a progress report on prevention and recycling of waste published last week (January 20), where it also claimed that “more could be done” by all EU Member States to reduce waste generation in the first instance.
At the heart of the report, the Commission reveals “significant disparities between Member States in terms of recycling”, with some countries achieving over 70% municipal waste recycling rates and others continuing to landfill nearly 90% of material.
The report highlights that Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands achieved the highest municipal waste recycling and composting rate according to data for 2006. And, it praised the United Kingdom, Ireland, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Latvia and Poland for their “rapidly increasing” recycling rates since 2000.
However, the report claims that there has been a “levelling off” of efforts and also warns that the performance may not fully reflect waste generation among Member States. It states: “a country with high overall levels of generation may show high levels of recycling in terms of weight, but as a proportion of total generation the achievement may be low.”
The Commission claims there is a “significant margin for progress” among Member States and urges the involvement of stakeholders and the public to ensure the recycling message is driven home.
Commenting on the report, environment commissioner Janez Potocnik said: “We are serious about making Europe a ‘resource efficient economy' as we set out-do in the Europe 2020 Strategy. This is not just about reducing negative environmental impacts and greenhouse gas emissions, it will also create jobs; in the waste and recycling sector alone half a million jobs could be created.”
Generation
The report also outlines that the amount of waste generated by EU Member States appears to be increasing – or “at best stabilising” – but at a lower rate than economic growth. The report outlines an anticipated increase in household consumption and waste generation and the Commission states: “More could be done, therefore, to reduce absolute generation of waste”.
Assessing landfill disposal, the UK was among the top 10 for percentage of municipal waste landfilled in 1995, with around 80% of material landfilled, although it managed to reduce this to just over 55% in 2007. At the other end of the spectrum, Denmark only landfilled around 20% of its municipal waste in 1995 and reduced this to 5% in 2007.
Viewed against the Thematic Strategy, the Commission highlights that waste sent to landfill was approximately 40% across all EU Member States in 2008 compared to 49% in 2005. It states that modern and simplified EU waste legislation is behind this reduction.
Organic
Another area in which the Commission claims that the EU-27 is making headway is organic waste. The report states that the amount of biodegradable waste sent to landfill is expected to drop by 38% between 2008 and 2020 – a decline of 20.6 million tonnes.
The Commission claims this is set to be facilitated by a rapid uptake in organic waste treatment, with anaerobic digestion expected to increase by 349% across Europe by 2020. This is followed by home composting (143%) and mechanical biological treatment (103%).
Looking ahead, the Commission said it would continue to monitor prevention and recycling progress and the implementation of enforcement of waste legislation, such as the Waste Framework Directive. The European Commission said it will make further proposals in 2012.
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