Briefing Paper No 11

EU Policy on waste has evolved over the last 30 years, Originally, emphasis was on the safe disposal of waste and the promotion of Integrated Waste Management. In the 1990s, legislation became increasingly more specific, focusing on waste management methodology and, latterly on individual product streams. The overall approach is based on three principles:

• Waste prevention
• Recycling and reuse
• Improving final disposal and monitoring

The Publication of the EU’s 6^th Environmental Action Plan (2001) marked a watershed in thinking, seeking to link up policy formulation and action to deal with the following four specific issues in an integrated way. The evolution is summarised in figure 1.

• Climate change
• Nature and biodiversity
• Environment and health and quality of life
• Natural resources and waste

EU Directives must be transcribed into Member states’ own law within a proscribed period. EU Regulations are legally binding on member states from their commencement date

• Prohibit the uncontrolled discarding, discharge and disposal of waste
• promote the prevention, recycling and conversion of wastes with a view to their reuse.

The objective of the Directive is to prevent or reduce as far as possible negative effects on the environment from the landfilling of waste, by introducing stringent technical requirements for waste and landfills.

The Directive is intended to prevent or reduce the adverse effects of the landfill of waste on the environment, in particular on surface water, groundwater, soil, air and human health.

It defines the different categories of waste (municipal waste, hazardous waste, non-hazardous waste and inert waste) and applies to all landfills, defined as waste disposal sites for the deposit of waste onto or into land.

The Directive sets up a system of operating permits for landfill sites. Member States must ensure that existing landfill sites may not continue to operate unless they comply with the provisions of the Directive as soon as possible.

The volume of biodegradable municipal waste must be progressively reduced, relative to 1995 levels, to meet the following targets:

The deadline for implementation of the legislation in the Member States was 16.07.2001.

The aim of the Directive is to prevent or - where that is not practicable - to reduce as far as possible negative effects on the environment caused by the incineration* and co-incineration** of waste. In particular, it should reduce pollution caused by emissions into the air, soil, surface water and groundwater, and thus lessen the risks which these pose to human health. This is to be achieved through stringent operational conditions and technical requirements and by setting up emission limit values for waste incineration and co-incineration plants within the Community.

Although the volume of waste incineration is forecast to increase across the EU in the near future, the Directive aims to lead to significant reductions in emissions of several key pollutants. Moreover, controls on releases to water will - for the first time - reduce the pollution impact of incineration on marine and fresh water ecosystems. Considerable reductions will be achieved for acid gases such as nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulphur dioxide (SO2) and hydrogen chloride (HCl) as well as for heavy metals. Emissions of cadmium throughout the EU are expected to fall from 16 tonnes per year in 1995 to around 1 tonne in 2005. Over the same period, mercury emissions should fall from an annual 36 tonnes to around 7 tonnes.

In addition, the Directive targets the incineration of non-hazardous waste, which has been identified as the largest source of emissions of dioxins and furans into the atmosphere. The Directive will reduce such emissions from Community incineration from an annual 2,400 grams in 1995 to only 10 grams after full implementation in 2005.

incineration plants are those whose main purpose is to burn waste and which may or may not recover heat generated by combustion

** co-incineration plants (such as cement kilns, steel or power plants whose main purpose is energy generation or the production of material products).

The aims of the Directive are to

1. harmonise national measures in order to remove obstacles to trade and distortion and restriction of competition, and
2. reduce the environmental impact of packaging by reducing packaging at source, maximising the recovery of used packaging, and eliminating harmful materials.

The Directive applies to household, commercial and industrial packaging marketed in the European Union. Requirements include obligations for Member states to:

• set up systems to recover at least 50% of packaging waste and no more than 65% by July 2001 and to recycle at least 25% and no more than 45% of packaging materials, with no material recycled at less than 15%.
• take action to reduce the quantity and the harmfulness to the environment of materials and substances used, and in general promote "clean" products and technology.
• "where appropriate", encourage the use of materials recovered from recycled packaging waste in the production of new packaging and other products.
• ensure that packaging is allowed on the market only if it complies with certain "essential requirements", which include minimisation of packaging weight and volume to the amount needed for safety and consumer acceptance of the packed product, and suitability for material recycling, energy recovery or composting.

The targets are currently being revised to recover 60% of packaging waste and recycle 55% by 31 December 2008. The material-specific recycling targets are 60% for glass and paper, 50% for metals, 22,5% for plastics and 15% for wood.

A key issue at stake in the current conciliation procedure concerns the discussion on the impacts of the judgement of the European Court of Justice in Case 458/00 on the Packaging and Packaging Waste recovery targets. According to this judgement Municipal Solid Waste incineration with energy recovery can no longer count towards recovery targets in the Directive, making it difficult for several member states to reach the 60% recovery target.

Directive 2002/95/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 January 2003 on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment (the "RoHS directive") and

These Directives aim to restrict the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment and increase the recycling of electrical and electronic equipment in order to limit the total quantity of waste going to final disposal. The Directives are designed to tackle the fast increasing waste stream of electrical and electronic equipment and complement the Landfill and Incineration Directives.

Producers will be responsible for taking back and recycling electrical and electronic equipment. This will provide incentives to design electrical and electronic equipment in an environmentally more efficient way, which takes waste management aspects fully into account. Consumers will be able to return their equipment free of charge. In order to prevent the generation of hazardous waste, Directive 2002/95/EC requires the substitution of various heavy metals (lead, mecury, cadmium, and hexavalent chromium) and brominated flame retardants (polybrominated biphenyls (PBB) or polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE)) in new electrical and electronic equipment put on the market from 1 July 2006.

The 6th Environment Action Programme, adopted by the European Parliament and the Council in July 2002, addresses the key environmental objectives and priorities that require a lead from the EU. It aims to promote the integration of environmental concerns in all EU policies and contribute to the achievement of sustainable development in an enlarged EU. The new programme covers a period of ten years and identifies four environmental priority areas:

Climate Change

Nature and Biodiversity

Environment and Health

Natural Resources and Waste

The new Programme sets out the following main avenues for action:

Effective implementation and enforcement of environmental legislation necessary to set a common baseline for all EU countries

Integration of environmental concerns environmental problems have to be tackled were their source is and this is frequently in other policies.

Use of a blend of instruments all types of instruments have to be considered, the essential criterion for choice being that it has to offer the best efficiency and effectiveness possible.

Stimulation of participation and action of all actors from business to citizens, NGOs and social partners through better and more accessible information on the environment and joint work on solutions.

The programme proposes the development of seven "Thematic Strategies" under a common approach:

This communication launched a consultative process which will culminate in the creation of a new coherent EU strategy for waste prevention and recycling. The overall aim of the strategy will be to decouple resource use and waste generation from economic growth.

The Communication looks at the current economic and environmental impact of waste recovery and disposal, reviews the EU’s existing waste policy, and goes on to focus on possible solutions for sustainable waste management and waste impact minimisation.

1. Core instruments to promote waste prevention

2. Core instruments to promote waste recycling

3. Measures to close the waste recycling standards gap

4 Accompanying measures to promote waste prevention and recycling (e.g. improving the legal framework, promoting R&D, promoting demand for recycled materials)

 

A copy of the PI response to this communication is available is available electronically from steve.read@hants.gov.uk

On 1st October 2003, the Commission adopted a Communication entitled ‘Towards a Thematic Strategy on the Sustainable Use of Natural Resources’

The Communication should be read in in conjunction with the Communication entitled "Towards a Thematic Strategy on Waste Prevention and Recycling".

Resources are the backbone of every economy. In using resources and transforming them, capital stocks are built up which add to the wealth of present and future generations. However, the dimensions of our current resource use are such that the chances of future generations - and the developing countries - to have access to their fair share of scarce resources are endangered. Moreover, the consequences of our resource use in terms of impacts on the environment may induce serious damages that go beyond the carrying capacity of the environment. These effects risk being aggravated once the developing world has taken up growth and resource use similar to the industrialised countries.

The 6^th Environmental Action Programme (6 EAP) describes the objective for this thematic strategy as:

"ensuring that the consumption of resources and their associated impacts do not exceed the carrying capacity of the environment and breaking the linkages between economic growth and resource use".

Using natural resources in a sustainable way has been defined as:

• assuring the availability of supplies; and
• managing the environmental impacts of their use.

It is recognised that at present the environmental impacts of using non-renewable resources like metals, minerals and fossil fuels are greater than their possible scarcity, while with renewable resources like fish, clean water etc. scarcity is a problem in the sense of loss of biodiversity and habitats.

In order to focus attention where best needed the Commission aims to identify the resource usage with the greatest potential for environmental improvement.

The strategy therefore aims to provide a knowledge base by "mapping the hot spots" of resource-related impact and then assess options for improvement. These options are foreseen to fall into one of the following categories: ·

• using resources with more eco-efficient technology ·
• changing the patterns of consumption ·
• Using less of a given resource

The communication outlines the main features that a future strategy should comprise, building on existing policies. Although it sets out basic ideas on how the EU should target its efforts to reduce the environmental impacts of resource use, it does not actually propose specific measures to this end. This will be done in the final strategy to be presented in 2004.

The overarching goal of the Resource Strategy is to de-couple economic growth from environmental degradation.

In order to reach its objectives the strategy aims to examine the whole lifecycle of natural resources; how natural resources enter the EU economy, what products are made from them, and how the various materials and substances return to soil, air and water as waste and emissions.

Natural resources provide the basis for the three pillars of sustainable development, economic, social and environmental. However, physical reserves can become depleted and scarce, and this can then undermine future economic and social development. Moreover, the way in which resources are used can reduce the quality of the environment to an extent that can threaten ecosystems and the quality of human life.

At present the environmental impacts of using non-renewable resources like metals, minerals and fossil fuels are of greater concern than their possible scarcity. With fossil fuels for example, it is the greenhouse gases from their use that are a pressing problem today rather than the risk of reserves running out. With renewable resources like fish, clean water and land the picture is different because of loss of biodiversity and habitats. The Resources Strategy should therefore focus on reducing environmental impacts, thus enabling growing economies to use resources efficiently, from both an economic and an environmental point of view. This de-linking – commonly called decoupling - of impacts from growth is the overarching goal to which this strategy will contribute. It will be necessary to ensure that policies that influence directly or indirectly the use of resources strike a balance between the economic, environmental and social pillars of sustainable development.

Implementing new policies and adapting existing ones in order to achieve the necessary decoupling of resource-related environmental impacts from economic growth will be a long term process. Businesses, consumers and institutions need time to develop and adopt production and consumption patterns with lower impacts. They will also need public policies with clear long-term objectives in order to plan investment and innovate. For this reason the time scale for the strategy is 25 years.

The relations between resource use and environmental impact are only partially known at present. Furthermore they change with time, for example, as a result of technical or social developments. Differences in regional conditions and use patterns need also to be considered. In addition, environmental impacts related to the use of different resources vary widely. So, initially the strategy has to determine which resources at any given time are of biggest concern, e.g. the resources with the greatest potential for environmental improvement, taking into account technological possibilities and socio-economic aspects.

To perform the functions described above, and to take account of continuously evolving patterns of environmental impacts of resource use, the strategy will comprise three strategic elements that will apply continuously throughout its life:

The entire life-cycle of resources, from their extraction, through their use in the production of goods and services and the subsequent use phase, to the waste phase, gives rise to environmental impacts. Any given raw material can take numerous different pathways through the economy.

Aluminium, for example, can be transformed into goods as diverse as window-frames, aircraft bodies and beverage cans, and these all interact in very different ways with the environment. Knowledge about these pathways and impacts is presently dispersed between many actors, and significant gaps exist. The Resources Strategy has to ensure that knowledge is readily available to decision-makers and that gaps are being filled.

Policy assessment

The use of natural resources is influenced by numerous environmental policies, including for example strategies on the marine environment, soil protection, biodiversity and the urban environment, as well as climate change policy, the water framework directive and many others. In addition, many non-environmental policies strongly influence resource use – sometimes unintentionally. Examples include fiscal, transport, agricultural and energy policies. However, there is currently no mechanism for assessing how far policy-choices in these different areas are compatible with the overall aim of decoupling economic growth from the impacts of resource use. The Resources Strategy will make these assessments, raise awareness of potential tradeoffs, and suggest alternatives wherever possible.

To bring the strategy to life, concrete actions will need to be taken on the basis of the information generated by the previous two strategic elements. This will involve political judgements on the relative importance of different impacts and environmental targets, taking into account wider sustainable development considerations and identifying measures with the greatest potential for environmental improvement of resource use. The Resources Strategy will therefore work towards increasing the integration of resource-related environmental issues into other policies that influence the environmental impacts of the use of natural resources.