In a joint letter, we welcome the European Commission’s decision to address Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) within the Circular Economy Act. This is a timely and necessary step towards transitioning to more circularity and helping achieve the EU’s industrial, economic, and environmental goals.
Over 150 signatories are urging EU leaders to ban the creation of new incinerators in Europe once and for all. Incineration emissions are harmful to our health and our environment - and Europe needs to live up to its environmental and climate goals. Reuse, recycling, and waste prevention are real solutions - incineration isn’t.
The squandering of recyclable resources, losing their material value to incineration and landfilling, constitutes a significant yet avoidable hindrance to realising the circular economy. Though a further comprehensive revision of Waste Framework Directive (WFD) is anticipated, the ongoing revision should urgently address the incineration and landfilling of recyclable waste. This is pivotal for achieving municipal and packaging waste recycling targets, already enshrined in EU law for multiple years but challenging for many Member States.
NGOs and industry have written a joint letter to the European Parliament's Environment Committee to express their support for a limited expansion of the current scope of the proposal to revise the EU Waste Framework Directive.
E-waste, or WEEE, (waste from electrical and electronic equipment) is the fastest-growing and most complex waste stream worldwide. A new international standard for the sustainable management of e-waste will set requirements to achieve the best environmental outcome by focusing on the recovery of products, components, and materials.
ECOS has joined other NGOs and representatives of waste treatment operators to create this joint paper, which shows the lack of effectiveness of existing waste prevention policies. We need European level quantitative waste prevention targets, as well as effective national measures. This joint position paper also highlights manufacturers’ role in reducing resource use and the size of the circular economy loop. Lastly, it offers some clarity on the differences between waste prevention and recycling, emphasising that recycling is lower in the European waste hierarchy than prevention.
ECOS co-signs a pledge on chemical recycling with Zero Waste Europe and Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH), calling for circular economy principles for plastic. We encourage civil society and recycling industry organisations to endorse these principles.
ECOS is co-funded by the European Commission and EFTA
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or EISMEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
