EU Commission/ DG Environment
Early Warning Report for Member States at risk missing the 2020 target of 50% preparation for re-use / recycling for municipal waste published
On 24 September 2018 the European Commission published the latest review of how well EU waste rules are applied in Europe, presenting challenges and ways forward. The report gives an overview of progress and implementation challenges for several waste streams, including municipal waste, construction and demolition waste, hazardous waste, waste electrical and electronic equipment and packaging waste. It suggests areas for improvement for each of them.
For municipal waste, 14 Member States have been identified as at risk of missing the 2020 target of 50% preparation for re-use / recycling. These are: Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and Spain.
For each of these countries the Commission presented specific early warning reports including possible actions to improve their waste management and ensure compliance with EU waste legislation, taking into account best practice from other countries, but also local circumstances.
These actions include
- more effective separate collection to ensure high quality recycling,
- mandatory requirements to sort bio-waste,
- measures to encourage households to sort bio-waste,
- measures (incl. taxes) to phase out landfilling and other forms of residual waste treatment.
The Commission’s report on the implementation of waste legislation, including the early warning report can be downloaded here and its annex here.
Further supporting analysis:
Eunomia Research & Consulting Ltd (2018):