EU member states will need to recycle at least 55 per cent of their municipal waste arisings by 2025 under the deal reached by the European Parliament and Council early Monday morning. According to information made available to EUWID, the recycling target will rise to 60 per cent in 2030 and then to 65 per cent in 2035.
The compromise reached by the co-legislators after more than 17 hours of talks beginning on Sunday would also standardise the definition of municipal waste. A harmonised definition will make it possible to compare the performance of the member states when it comes to the targets for municipal waste recycling and preparation of reuse.
The difficulty the member states will face in achieving these goals also depends upon the methodology for calculating recycling rates, and the selection of a method was itself contentious. According to a Parliament source, the EU bodies have settled on a calculation methodology that defines the amount of waste recycled as the weight of the waste entering a final recycling process.
The full article on the provisional circular economy agreement including a variety of targets for packaging and biodegradable waste appears in EUWID Recycling & Waste 26/2017. Premium subscribers can read the article in our E-paper edition as of noon Wednesday.
