A lot of research and discussion has been taking place over the last few years to explore the possibility of a European Directive on Bio-waste. The European Commission has now come to an opinion that an EU-wide Bio-waste Directive is not necessary.
‘Bio-waste’ refers to biodegradable garden, park kitchen and food waste. Economic growth in the European Union has led to increasing amounts of waste, causing loss of materials and energy and environmental damage. Each year the EU is estimated to produce between 75 and 100 million tonnes of food and garden waste. This currently accounts for around one third of municipal waste.
Landfill is still the most common method for disposing of municipal waste in the enlarged EU. The EU's Landfill Directive[1] was introduced to address this, setting strict guidelines for their management. The main threat from bio-waste is the methane generated in landfill sites.
Options for bio-waste management include collection schemes to separate bio-waste followed by composting or anaerobic digestion, biological treatment of bio-waste, and incineration with high or low energy recovery. The environmental and economic benefits of different treatment methods depend on local conditions such as population density, climate and infrastructure. Member States have vastly diverging national policies for bio-waste management, ranging from little action in some Member States to ambitious policies in others. It is generally agreed that more efforts are needed to ensure that less goes to landfills and there is a high level of energy recovery and recycling
While waste management in the EU is governed by a substantial body of regulation, some believe there may be room for further improvement in the area of bio-waste, which offers potential advantages as a source of renewable energy and recycled materials.
The recent Waste Framework Directive (2008/98/EC) required the European Commission to carry out an assessment on the management of bio-waste with a view to submitting a proposal if appropriate. To this end the Commission carried out a consultation in 2008. The NFU argued that waste management was well covered by existing EU legislation, but that more could be done to encourage diversion from landfill and increase recycling of bio-waste materials. We argued that developing quality standards for recycled bio-waste products is important, but that member states should have the discretion to draw up their own standards based on the likely waste feedstocks and the condition of the receiving soils in their country.
The Commission has now issued a non-legislative communication concluding that there are no policy gaps at EU level that new legislation could fix. Instead it lists several priority areas for strengthening existing legislation. Priority actions include:
- Rigorous enforcement of the targets on diverting bio-waste away from landfills;
- Proper application of the waste hierarchy and other provisions of the Waste Framework Directive to introduce separate collection systems as a matter of priority;
- Developing EU standards for compost and digestate (possibly via the sewage sludge directive which is now under review. An impact assessment is planned for this year, with a proposal in 2011 if it is deemed appropriate);
- Guidelines on the application of life cycle thinking and assessment in the waste sector;
The European Parliament may not be happy with the Commission’s stance given that they recently concluded that a Biowaste Directive was necessary. However the member states are likely to back the Commission given the varying conditions which exist and the varying “starting points”.
The NFU willl watch with keen eyes what the member states position on developing EU standards for products such as compost and digestate are and how the Commission plans to take this work forward.
For the NFU's submission to the European Commission's original Green Paper on the proposed Bio-waste Directive view the document on the top right-hand side of the page.
[1] Council Directive 99/31/EC
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