The European Federation of Waste Management and Environmental Services (FEAD) has stressed that binding targets at EU-level and “pull measures” should be key elements of the European Commission’s Circular Economy Package.
FEAD says that binding recycling and landfill diversion targets at EU level should be a central part of the revised Package.
It says this is vital to provide legal certainty beyond 2020 and so give the private sector a firm basis for making business and investment decisions on waste and resource management infrastructure.
In a letter to Commissioners and the Secretariat General of the European Commission, FEAD stressed that targets should remain harmonised at EU level, with longer transition periods and additional support for some Member States where necessary.
Furthermore, the Commission’s original proposals on waste targets were mainly about the supply side.
The proposals to ban recyclable waste from landfill by 2025, and to set a 70% recycling target for municipal waste by 2030 would vastly increase the supply of secondary raw materials.
But where will the demand for these additional materials come from? asks FEAD, which is calling on the Commission to put much more emphasis on the demand side in its revised proposals by including the following “pull” measures:
- minimum recycled content requirements for selected products
- minimum green public procurement requirements at EU level to boost purchase of recycled products and materials
- eco-labelling rules to incorporate indications of recycled content and recyclability
- Lower or zero rate of VAT on second hand goods and products with recycled content.
To read to the full letter CLICK HERE
Source: ciwm-journal.co.uk
