Review of Waste Policy and Legislation

31/01/2014

EDA_EU_Environment

The European Commission is working on the review of waste policy and legislation.

The results of this review will be presented in 2014 and will cover also the list of waste and of the hazardous properties.

This review will cover the following three elements:

  1. A review of key targets in EU waste legislation (in line with the review clauses in the Waste Framework Directive, the Landfill Directive and the Packaging Directive);
  2. An ex-post evaluation (“fitness check”) of five of the EU Directives dealing with separate waste streams: sewage sludge, PCB/PCT, packaging and packaging waste, end of life vehicles, and  batteries;
  3. An assessment of how the problem of plastic waste can best be tackled in the context of the current waste policy framework, based on the publication of the Green Paper on a European Strategy on plastic waste in the Environment.

The objective is to lay the ground for more effective design of waste legislation that promotes further the principle of the waste hierarchy to remove ambiguity and improve legal certainty, thus making legislation clearer, more effective and more easily enforceable.

The European Demolition Associaton, together with its National Demolition Associations, is actively involved on the review process, and this will be one of the key focus for the work program of the association on 2014.

 

The Targets Review Project

The Targets Review Project has been commissioned by DG Environment at the European Commission.

The project seeks to review key targets under the Waste Framework Directive, the Landfill Directive and the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive.

The basis for the review of the targets is twofold. On the one hand it is to respond to the review clauses set out in the Directives and, on the other, to bring these targets in line with the Commission’s ambitions of promoting resource efficiency and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

In recent years the Commission has published a number of Communications which give a clear orientation for this exercise:

  • The Resource Efficiency Roadmap including 2020 aspirational targets;
  • The Raw Material Initiative highlighting the importance of recycling to ensure safe access to raw materials; and
  • The Report on the Thematic Strategy on Waste Prevention and Recycling summarising progress thus far, remaining challenges and proposals for the future.

 

Review of the List of Waste and of the hazardous properties

In order to simplify and modernise European waste legislation, the Commission has conducted a study on the review of the European List of Waste and the hazardous properties.

The study has provided information on the implementation of the LoW, proposing amendments of the LoW and assessing the impacts of those amendments.

 

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