Reducing waste or recovering by extending the life of products or recycling them are key elements of Europe's efforts to create a circular economy that contributes to the sustainability goals of the European Green Deal. However, according to the assessment of the European Environment Agency, published today, many EU Member States are at risk of missing at least one of the main recycling targets for municipal waste and waste. packaging by 2025. A second report highlights effective strategies used by Member States that have achieved high recycling rates.
The EEA's briefing on assessing progress towards EU waste recycling targets shows that 9 Member States — Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany , Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Slovenia — are currently on track to meet key municipal waste and packaging waste recycling targets for 2025, while 18 are at risk of missing one or several. The report summarizes key findings from 27 more detailed country profiles .
The EEA's analysis informs the European Commission's early warning report on EU countries' waste management performance . The report aims to improve the implementation of EU waste legislation and help Member States at risk of falling short of their targets. It identifies the main implementation gaps and their underlying root causes and suggests priority actions to improve performance and facilitate the exchange of good practices between Member States.
The work of the EEA supports the monitoring of Member States' progress towards achieving the recycling targets set for 2025 in the Waste Framework Directive and the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive :
- 55% recycle and prepare municipal waste for reuse;
- 65% recycling of all packaging waste;
- and material-specific packaging waste recycling targets (75% for paper and cardboard, 70% for glass, 70% for ferrous metals, 50% for aluminium, 50% for plastics and 25 % for wood).
Success factors: landfill taxes or bans and effective bio-waste collection
A second EEA briefing entitled " Economic instruments and separate collection systems — Key strategies to increase recycling " provides an overview of the main measures taken by EU Member States to improve recycling rates and reduce the landfill .
The report shows that the Member States with the highest recycling rates — Germany, Austria, Slovenia, the Netherlands and Luxembourg — all have well-designed landfill taxes in place, or bans on landfilling, facilitate the collection of bio-waste for many residents and effectively use economic incentives to encourage citizens to sort their waste.
The note also notes that to improve overall recycling rates, separate collection of bio-waste also plays a key role as it constitutes the largest fraction (37%) of all municipal waste.
The EEA analysis highlights that improving recycling rates requires a coherent combination of several well-designed and consistently implemented measures, such as landfill taxes and convenient separate collection schemes, accompanied by good information for citizens.
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Posted on 2023-06-20 15:50
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