The European Federation of Waste Management and Environmental Services (FEAD) welcomed the European Commission's proposals to revise EU waste legislation and targets as its presented its own circular economy strategy in Brussels on Tuesday evening. Further increases in recycling, progressive reductions in landfill, clearer definitions across member states and a role for waste to energy "mainly limited to dealing with non-recyclable/ non-compostable waste" all find a place within FEAD's strategy for 2014-2020, which it is calling "Driving the Circular Economy".
The organisation has identified coherence in policy making as one of the central themes of the strategy. As part of this coherence, the organisation calls on the Commission to improve statistics on raw material and waste flows and to continue its efforts to clarify when waste ceases to be waste. The umbrella group would like to more policy designed create demand pull for secondary raw materials within Europe, suggesting among other things that a the Commission consider stronger rules on green public procurement and a lower rate of VAT for second hand goods and green products as well as adopting eco-labelling rules. FEAD also calls for a greater opening of the waste and recycling market to private investment and competition from the private sector.
