Bid to set tougher recycling targets

Date: 22/07/1999

By Renée Cordes

OUTGOING Environment Commissioner Ritt Bjerregaard has drawn up tough new proposals to set strict recycling and reuse targets for paper, glass and other kinds of packaging.

In the latest draft of her plans to revise the EU's five-year-old packing waste legislation, Bjerregaard suggests that manufacturers should be required to recycle at least 45% of the weight of some types of packaging. This is substantially higher than the 12% target in the previous version, although the lower target would have applied to all kinds of packaging.

Firm proposals are not likely to be ready before the end of this year, and it will be up to incoming Environment Commissioner Margot Wallström to decide on the final shape of the initiative.

Bjerregaard's move comes after most member states said they would surpass the 25% recycling targets for the period up to 2001 set out in current EU legislation. As a result, say Commission officials, higher Union-wide targets are "realistic".

The EU's 1994 packaging waste directive is aimed at reducing the environmental impact of waste from packaging materials while ensuring a level playing-field in the single market.

The latest version of the draft directive calls for a combined recycling/ reuse target of 75%. This would allow member states to reduce recycling targets if they increased reuse rates and vice versa. The previous version suggested a combined target of 45%.

But EU diplomats and recycling industry representatives are urging the Commission to delay setting such a requirement until there is a way to compare the two figures directly. Recycling targets are currently based on weight, while reuse targets are set according to volume.

Jacques Fonteyne, managing director of the European Recovery and Recycling Organisation, argues that it is premature to introduce changes now and warns that they could backfire.

"Today more than 100 million Europeans sort packaging waste for recycling. Changing the system now might discourage them," he said.

But environmental campaigners have welcomed the move towards more ambitious targets. "They are in line with trends and what is feasible," said Christian Hey, EU policy director at the European Environmental Bureau. He acknowledged the problems involved in setting combined recycling and reuse targets, but suggested these could be overcome by including ranges for reuse and recycling.