MEPs vote for increase in recycling targets to 70 percent by 2030

Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have voted for an increase to the proposed recycling targets outlined in the EU’s Circular Economy Package to 70 percent.

MEPs suggest that by 2030, at least 70 percent by weight of so-called municipal waste (from households and businesses) should be recycled or prepared for re-use, (i.e. checked, cleaned or repaired). The European Commission proposed 65 percent.

For packaging materials, such as paper and cardboard, plastics, glass, metal and wood, MEPs propose an 80 percent target for 2030, with interim 2025 targets for each material.

“Sorting and recycling are more attractive when all packaging is collected separately from residual household waste since this guarantees the supply of feedstock to support new investments”, said Karl-H. Foerster, Executive Director of PlasticsEurope.

“This measure is one step to close the gap and will also help prevent the risk of leakage into the environment; it will support the creation of jobs in Europe and secure a robust European recycling value chain” he stated.

For plastics packaging recycling, the revised target is 60 percent by 2025, an increase of five percent on the 55 percent target proposed by the EU Commission.

Commenting, Foerster said although he agreed with many of the MEPs’ proposals, he views the increased plastics packaging recycling target for 2025, together with a stricter calculation methodology, as an “extremely ambitious” objective.

“Taking into account today’s recycling technology, we already consider that the 55 percent plastics packaging preparing for re-use and recycling target proposed by the Commission is challenging,” he explained.

“We would, therefore, like to call on the Presidency of the Council to carefully assess the impact prior to adopting any substantive amendment to the rules on the calculation initially proposed by the Commission.”

Landfilling

Where the EU’s draft law limits the share of municipal waste to be landfilled to 10 percent by 2030, MEPs proposed to reduce this further to five percent, albeit with a possible five-year extension, under certain conditions, for member states which landfilled more than 65 percent of their municipal waste in 2013.

“The European plastics industry has been calling for a legally binding landfill restriction on all recyclable as well as other recoverable post-consumer waste by 2025. As an industry, we see it as a priority for Europe as such waste should be treated as a resource,” Foerster noted.

Parliament will now negotiate with Council of Ministers.