Recycling plans dumped

The prospect of setting EU-wide recycling targets has faded as environment ministers voted (28 June) to let countries set their own waste collection and disposal rates.

MEPs in February voted to make member states recycle half their municipal and 70% of their industrial waste by 2020, as part of a reviewed waste framework directive. Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said that this standard approach to reducing waste volume was "too blunt".

Environment ministers said that waste- prevention plans from each country would instead set national targets and monitoring processes in line with national disposal systems.

They also agreed a five-step waste hierarchy, starting with waste prevention, followed by reuse, recycling or composting, recovery of energy through burning, with landfill disposal as the least favoured option.

Under an efficiency formula agreed by ministers, the most efficient waste incinerators can be reclassified as energy recovery.

German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel said that the reviewed waste framework directive would be "an excellent example of better regulation in EU legislation".

Dimas said that "the conclusions approved by Council…give us a solid basis for our work in several areas over the next year or so".

Parliament is expected to reintroduce the question of EU-wide targets during a second reading of the waste framework review later this year.

Michael Warhurst of Friends of the Earth, an environmental group, said that ministers’ failure to agree recycling targets at first reading was "deeply disappointing".

The prospect of setting EU-wide recycling targets has faded as environment ministers voted (28 June) to let countries set their own waste collection and disposal rates.