An 8 June report published by the European Commission, the EU's politically independent executive arm responsible for overseeing the application of EU law, pointed a finger at a sizeable group of Member States - 18 in all -who are at risk of missing not only the 2025 targets established for the reuse and recycling of municipal and all packaging waste, but also the 2035 landfill target.
The nine countries on track to meet the 2025 targets are Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Slovenia. The rest, however, failing action on their part, are set to miss either one or even both 2025 targets.
According to the Commission, Estonia, Finland, France, Ireland, Latvia, Portugal, Spain and Sweden must step up their efforts if they are to meet the municipal waste target; Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania and Slovakia are all set to miss both the 2025 targets.
Various countries have also continued to landfill most of their municipal waste and will probably fail to meet the 2035 landfilling target. The commission has now formulated a number of recommendations, backed by continuous financial and technical support, that are designed to improve these countries’ waste management performance.
Europeans generate an average of 530kg of municipal waste per person of which about 50% is recycled or composted and 23% is landfilled. A large share of municipal waste is composed of packaging waste, which has significant circularity potential, states the report. Around 64% of packaging waste is now recycled, although this varies by material. Currently, less than 40% of plastic packaging is recycled - and this is creating the problem for the EU countries at risk of not meeting the material-specific plastic packaging waste recycling target.The separate collection of biowaste, or lack thereof, was another factor seen to be hampering better recycling practices. In fact, according to this report, biowaste is ‘the most important waste stream for which action is needed, since it constitutes on average 34% of municipal waste’. The report cites various reasons for this failure: poor waste management practices, i.e., no separate waste collection and poor data quality; Covid, which reduced or halted separate collection in some countries; and the recent spike in energy prices, which is also adversely affecting recycling activities.
The recommendations presented by the commission span a range of actions, including reducing non-recyclable waste, increasing reuse, boosting separate collection, developing waste treatment capacities for sorting and recycling, improving governance, deploying economic instruments and awareness-raising.
While EU funds and technical advice will be provided to the Member States to beef up their improvement efforts, the national authorities will be responsible for intensifying policy efforts and stepping up action on the ground.
The report also included initiatives to promote a more circular economy and provided a preliminary assessment of the progress made towards reducing the use of landfills to dispose of municipal waste to less than 10% by 2035, as required under the Landfill Directive. That Directive also introduces a ban on the landfilling of separately collected waste, including biodegradable waste.
However, almost 2000 illegal or substandard landfills are still operating in EU, a considerable source of pollution and greenhouse gases and a missed opportunity for the recovery of secondary raw materials.
Implementing waste reduction and recycling measures on the ground is key for our circular economy transition, said Virginijus Sinkevičius, Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries. “Turning waste into resources helps us on the way to climate neutrality, increases the security of supply of energy and raw materials, and creates local jobs and innovation opportunities. The early warning report allows us, in close cooperation with the Member States, to detect shortcomings, take action ahead of the deadlines for meeting the targets, and share best practices in sound waste management.”
