7 WASTE PREVENTION AND RECYCLING
(a)
(27143)
5047/06
COM(05) 666
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ADD 2
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Commission Communication: Taking sustainable use of resources forward:
A Thematic Strategy on the prevention and recycling of waste
Annex to the Thematic Strategy and draft Directive on waste - Impact
Assessment
Annex to the Thematic Strategy - Technical Annexes
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(b)
(27144)
5050/06
COM(05) 667
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Draft Directive on waste
Annex to the Thematic Strategy and draft Directive on waste - Impact Assessment
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| Legal base | (a) —
(b) Article 175EC; co-decision; QMV
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| Documents originated | 21 December 2005
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| Deposited in Parliament |
10 January 2006 |
| Department | Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
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| Basis of consideration |
EMs of 18 January 2006 |
| Previous Committee Report |
None |
| To be discussed in Council
| March 2006 |
| Committee's assessment | Politically important
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| Committee's decision | Not cleared; further information awaited
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Background
7.1 According to the Commission, waste presents an environmental,
social and economic challenge, and has been at the centre of Community
environmental policy for the last 30 years. It says that substantial
progress has been made in such areas as landfill and incineration,
the development of new techniques for hazardous waste, and the
removal of hazardous substances from vehicles and electrical and
electronic equipment. It also says that waste is increasingly
being seen as a valuable resource for industry, with greater use
being made of re-use, recycling and energy recovery, and that
actions such as the diversion of biodegradable waste from landfills
have contributed to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
However, despite this, it considers that waste remains a problem,
in that volumes continue to grow, the relevant legislation is
in some cases poorly implemented, and significant differences
continue to exist between national approaches. It therefore believes
that Community waste policy should be analysed and assessed, with
a view to setting a strategic framework for the future, and it
has sought in the first of these documents to set out such a strategy,
in the process fulfilling one of the objectives contained in the
Sixth Environmental Action Programme.
7.2 The strategy is accompanied by a proposed revision of the
Waste Framework Directive, and is closely linked to the Thematic
Strategy on the use of natural resources,[12]
on which we have also reported.
The current documents
(A) THE THEMATIC STRATEGY
7.3 The Commission says that 49% of municipal waste within the
Community is currently disposed of through landfill, with recycling
and composting accounting for 33% and incineration 18%, but that
these figures cover wide discrepancies between Member States,
with landfill still being the dominant factor in those which joined
in 2004. It notes that current policy is based on the so-called
waste hierarchy, meaning that, as a general rule, waste should
ideally be prevented, or re-used, recycled and recovered where
this is not feasible, with landfill being used as little as possible.
It reiterates that, despite this, the overall increase in municipal
waste volumes means that the amount going to landfill is not decreasing
in absolute terms, with increases also taking place in hazardous
waste generation, and that the likelihood is that these trends
will continue. More specifically, it notes that limited progress
has been made in achieving waste prevention, and that, although
recycling and recovery are increasing, they still account for
only a limited proportion of all waste generated. In addition,
recycling treatment standards are not always satisfactory.
7.4 Despite these shortcomings, the Commission considers that
the basic objectives of current waste policy are still valid,
and that the aim should be to clarify, simplify and streamline
the existing legal framework, using the following combination
of measures.
Renewed emphasis on full implementation
7.5 The Commission points to problems across the Member States,
varying from the continued existence of illegal landfills to differences
of interpretation. Its aim is to remove ambiguities, resolve disputed
interpretations, and amend legislation which has not brought the
expected environmental benefits, whilst continuing to take legal
action where necessary to ensure equal enforcement.
Simplification of existing legislation
7.6 The Commission proposes that the Water Framework Directive
should be merged with the Hazardous Waste Directive (introducing
life-cycle thinking, clarifying where waste ceases to be waste
and the definitions of recovery and disposal, introducing a definition
of recycling, and solving overlaps between different pieces of
legislation); that the Waste Oils Directive should be repealed,
and its provisions on collection of waste oils transferred to
the Waste Framework Directive; and that three Directives on waste
from the titanium dioxide industry should be consolidated in 2006.
Also, in the context of the Community's wider steps to achieve
better regulation and simplification, it will assess the need
for further steps in this area, including reviews of the Directives
on end-of-life vehicles and waste electric and electronic equipment,
and of the system of waste nomenclature; and it says that, with
the common standards proposed in this Strategy in place, a simplified
regulatory regime for shipments of waste, which further encourages
recycling and recovery, could be created.
Introduction of life-cycle thinking into waste policy
7.7 The Commission notes that, whilst environmental policy has
traditionally focussed on the extraction and manufacture at one
end of the life cycle and waste management at the other, it is
now recognised that environmental impacts are often linked to
usage, and that trade-offs can be made between the different life-cycle
phases. It says that environmental policy needs to ensure that
negative environmental impacts are minimised throughout the entire
life cycle, and that this will enable priorities to be identified
more easily and policies to be targeted more effectively, thereby
achieving maximum environmental benefits relative to the effort
expended. It adds that this approach will be incorporated into
Community legislation by clarifying the objectives of the Waste
Framework Directive so that these explicitly consider the life-cycle
perspective.
Promotion of more ambitious waste prevention policies
7.8 The Commission says that Member States' obligations to develop
publicly available waste prevention programmes will be clarified,
and that it will promote the use of tools to encourage the spread
of best practice. This will be underpinned by better knowledge
and information.
Development of common reference standards for recycling
7.9 The Commission proposes that, in order to ensure the proper
functioning of the internal market for recycling, minimum standards
should be set across the Community for recycling activities and
recycled materials so as to ensure a high level of environmental
protection and to prevent a threat of "eco-dumping".
It adds that this approach should be applied to biowaste as a
priority.
Further elaboration of the Community's recycling policy
7.10 The Commission states that new ways to foster recycling will
be sought, with a detailed analysis of the long-term feasibility
and viability of a material-specific approach being undertaken,
and Member States being encouraged to make more use of economic
instruments and to exchange best practice.
7.11 The Commission then outlines the likely impact that these
measures. It suggests that these will include less waste going
to landfill by bringing the price involved up to a level which
better reflects its real environmental impact (though it recognises
that this will take time, and that progress will need to be reviewed
in 2010); the consequential channelling of more waste into options
higher up the hierarchy, a process which it says will be increased
by the development of quality benchmarks for composting and the
use of efficiency thresholds for municipal incinerators; a significant
increase in the proportion of waste for recycling which is covered
minimum quality standards, which it suggests will stimulate demand
for such materials, and thereby increase the attractiveness of
recycling as a disposal option; and a review in 2010 of any areas
where there appear to be obstacles to the full development of
the recycling market, to see what further action may be needed.
7.12 The Commission summarises the key environmental and social
benefits of its proposed approach as being:
- a greater focus of waste policy on environmental impact, leading
to greater efficiency and cost-effectiveness;
- an improved regulatory environment for waste management activities,
leading to decreased costs and reduced barriers to recycling and
recovery;
- implementation of waste prevention policies at national level,
promoting action at the point closest to its generation; and
- increased waste recovery, leading to a reduction in emissions
on greenhouse gases from waste disposal.
In particular, it says that there would be a further diversion
of municipal waste from landfill, a reduction in administrative
costs arising from a greater clarity as to what constitutes waste,
and a limited net creation of jobs (after allowing for a reduction
in the need for the extraction of virgin materials).
7.13 The Commission also addresses briefly the international dimension.
It points out that the most important initiatives taken internationally
are the Basle Convention on the control of trans-boundary movements
of hazardous wastes and their disposal, and the measures taken
by OECD on controlling shipments of waste and developing internationally
agreed benchmarks. It adds that the Community is contributing
to the creation of a control system at international level, notably
through its waste shipment regulation.
(B) THE DRAFT DIRECTIVE
7.14 The accompanying proposal would revise the Waste Framework
Directive, in order to take account of three main elements identified
in the Thematic Strategy — the need to clarify a number
of definitions which have created legal uncertainty, and variations
in interpretation from Member State to Member State; the introduction
of an explicit environmental objective into waste management policy;
and the simplification of the existing legal framework. In particular,
it would:
- clarify the definitions of "waste" and "recovery";
- require Member States to prevent or reduce waste production,
and ensure that such waste as is produced is recovered by re-use
and recycling: it would also introduce Community-wide minimum
standards for the recovery of waste, and require Member States
to develop national waste prevention programmes; and
- repeal the Waste Oils Directive (including its requirement
that priority should be given to waste oils regeneration over
other recovery operations), and repeal and integrate the Hazardous
Waste Directive into the revised Waste Framework Directive, taking
the opportunity to repeal or modify some obsolete or unclear provisions
in the existing Directives.
The Government's view
7.15 These two documents have been the subject of Explanatory
Memoranda of 18 January 2006 from the Minister for Local Environment,
Marine and Animal Welfare at the Department for Environment, Food
and Rural Affairs (Mr Ben Bradshaw). In the first of these, he
notes that the Thematic Strategy would maintain the waste hierarchy,
which he says is also at the centre of UK waste policy. He adds
that the UK welcomes the publication of the strategy as a new
way of communicating strategic policy goals in this area, and
will analyse its content to assess whether it achieves its objectives.
The UK also welcomes the strategy's integration with other related
strategies, and the Commission's use of impact assessments, though
the Minister notes that in this case these are largely qualitative
in nature, and do not examine in detail the implications for individual
Member States or industry sectors.
7.16 However, the Minister says that the Government has a number
of reservations on the proposed Directive, notably as regards
subsidiarity. In particular, these relate to the justification
for, and implications of, the introduction of Community-wide minimum
standards for waste disposal and recovery/recycling operations,
and the registration of waste collectors; the imposition of best
available techniques in relation to the network of disposal operations;
and the separation of hazardous waste and permit exemptions. It
also considers that the proposed introduction of Community-wide
minimum standards will result in the transfer of standard setting
from Member States' competent authorities to the Commission, which
will increase the prescriptive nature of the Directive, reduce
flexibility, and result in a control system which is less proportionate
in terms of imposing measures which reflect the risk to the environment
and to human health from waste operations on individual sites.
He adds that this may serve to discourage waste recycling, and
that the Commission's proposals on waste prevention programmes,
which are also prescriptive in nature, may absorb significant
resources in Member States.
7.17 The Minister says that the Government does not believe that
the implications of these proposals have been fully addressed
in the Commission's Impact Assessment, and it does not consider
that an evidence-based case for the imposition of more prescriptive
and less flexible Community-wide standards and of best available
techniques has been properly made and justified. He adds that
the proposed increase in the requirements for waste management
plans, notably the inclusion of historical contaminated sites,
the use of economic instruments, and the requirements to integrate
the taking into account of impacts throughout the life-cycle of
products and materials could have substantial practical implications
for the UK. Consequently, these issues will be addressed in more
detail in the Regulatory Impact Assessment which the Government
itself will be supplying on the proposed Directive.
Conclusion
7.18 Taken together, these two documents deal with a subject
of topical, and increasing, interest, and are thus clearly of
some importance. It is also evident that the Government has a
number of reservations on the proposed Directive, not least over
the extent to which the Commission's Impact Assessment has been
able to quantify the costs involved. We will therefore await with
interest the Regulatory Impact Assessment which the Government
itself will be providing on the proposal, and we will at that
stage take a further view on it. In the meantime, we are drawing
the documents to the attention of the House.
12
(27141) 5032/06; see para 3. Back
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