Irish Regions Office Website

July 09, 2009

Biowaste directive to include Local Authorities' input

EU Member States have asked the European Commission to bring forward a proposal for a directive on biodegradable waste management, possibly by next year, following last December's Green Paper and consultative process on the issue. It is envisaged that the legislation would take account of waste prevention, separation of collection, quality assurance and traceability measures, as well as labeling and quality criteria for compost.

Currently biowaste (from food and gardens) constitutes up to 45% of municipal solid waste in Europe and, when sent to landfill, is a significant producer of harmful methane gas - a key contributor to the greenhouse effect. The EU Landfill Directive obliges Member States to reduce the amount of biowaste disposed of in this manner by 65% by 2016 compared to 1995 levels but does not set binding specifications on the appropriateness of alternative methods which range from widely-used incineration to the more sustainable high recovery approaches. Now, with a standalone biowaste directive on the cards, Environment Ministers have asked the Commission to report in detail by the end of this year on its current impact assessment of the different policy options available and the views submitted by invited stakeholders.

The Ministers also stressed the need to take the experiences of local authorities and other local-level factors into account when determining which policy options to pursue. This will be especially important in reaching an EU-level compromise which will account adequately for all conditions at subnational level. Taking a gradual approach towards legislating for the various elements of the future directive may be in order.

Council conclusions

Posted by iroronan at July 9, 2009 12:54 PM