Recycling targets put on ice

Ambitious EU recycling targets are unlikely to make it into a political agreement on new waste disposal laws, expected from governments next month.

Member states are expected to agree their position on a revision of the 1975 waste framework directive at the 28-29 June Environment Council, on the basis of a compromise drafted by the German presidency of the EU. But the question of whether or not countries should face binding minimum levels for recycling waste will be left for discussion during a second reading.

The original proposal did not include binding recycling targets. Instead it proposed more general "common environmental requirements for waste recycling", leaving member states to decide and monitor their own recycling rates.

MEPs in February voted to have 70% of industrial waste and 50% of municipal waste recycled across the EU by 2020. The move was warmly welcomed by environmental groups, but even Stavros Dimas, the European environment commissioner, warned that the recycling targets were "too blunt" to work on 27 different national waste markets.

National recycling rates vary widely between EU countries. Only Belgium and Austria already recycle half of their municipal waste.

A draft of the political agreement makes no mention of binding targets. "The targets have no chance of being agreed by governments at this stage," said a German diplomat. "There are too many other waste issues still being discussed. We will take the Parliament-ary amendments into account, but there will be no compromise on recycling rates."

The political agreement will also for the first time see governments formally agree a five-step ‘waste hierarchy’, encouraging the use of some waste disposal methods over others.

An informal hierarchy exists in many member states today, but at EU-level the issue remains confused.

The political agreement would put waste prevention at the top of the hierarchy as the most favoured option, with landfill disposal at the bottom of the list. Re-use, recycling and other recovery options will fill the remaining three steps, in descending order.

Member states will be asked to draw up their own waste strategies in line with the hierarchy.

Governments remain divided over the question of when burning waste to produce energy can be labelled ‘recovery’, rather than the less environmentally friendly-sounding ‘incineration’.

The final German compromise is likely to say that incineration plants meeting specific environmental criteria will qualify as recovery. Member states wary of being flooded with waste from countries not equipped with recovery facilities would be allowed to block waste imports.

Ambitious EU recycling targets are unlikely to make it into a political agreement on new waste disposal laws, expected from governments next month.