The circular economy package tabled by the Commission offers a combination of binding targets and clarified or improved framework conditions. The proposals should help to move our societies away from land-filling and towards significantly increased resource efficiency. A number of improvements are required to make this happen.
The Commission’s circular economy package proposes ambitious yet realistic 2030 targets for recycling and landfill. All Member States should now put in place long-term strategies as to how these targets can be achieved in the most effective way.
Oliver Loebel, Managing Director of PU Europe commented: "The land-filling of valuable resources is unacceptable and must be minimised. Member States should therefore put in place the right incentives and infrastructures to divert waste from landfill. We believe that reuse and recycling, but also energy recovery must be part of the solution. The proposed waste-to-energy initiative could help to strike the right balance between increased energy supply security and the need to boost recycling."
PU Europe also welcomes the efforts to better define end-of-waste rules and set quality standards for secondary raw materials. As to construction, the development of pre-demolition assessment guidelines and recycling protocols for construction and demolition waste should facilitate recycling activities. It will be paramount that demolition waste is effectively sorted into different waste fractions, as this is already the case in a number of Member States.
PU Europe supports the development of core indicators for the assessment of the lifecycle environmental performance of buildings, provided these are consistent with the Product Environmental Footprint method, the CEN/TC350 standards and the Ecodesign methodology.
"The Commission proposals provide a good basis for a final deal. The legislative process should be used to improve certain definitions and ensure a truly European vision for the years to come", Loebel concluded.
To the Commission proposals here