Spotlight: European Parliament backs ambitious recycling goals in push toward circular economy

STRASBOURG, France, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Members of European Parliament (MEPs) voted Wednesday to adopt an ambitious legislation package to boost recycling, reduce municipal waste, cut land filling, and move the European Union toward a robust circular economy.

According to a statement released by the European Parliament, the circular economy package aims to promote "a system where the value of products, materials and resources is maintained in the economy for as long as possible," with measures that will "benefit the environment, climate, and human health".

A minimum of 55 percent of municipal waste from households and businesses should be recycled by 2025, says the text of the legislation, agreed upon by the European Council of Ministers.

This target will rise to 60 percent by 2030 and 65 percent by 2035. Packaging materials will have to be recycled at rates of 65 percent by 2025 and 70 percent by 2030, with separate targets to be set for specific packaging materials such as paper, cardboard, plastic, glass, metal and wood.

A total of 47 percent of all European municipal waste was recycled or composted in 2016, according to statistics published by Eurostat.

"With this package, Europe is firmly committed to sustainable economic and social development, which will at last integrate industrial policies and environmental protection," said the lead MEP on the legislation Simona Bonafe (Socialists and Democrats group, Italy).

"The circular economy is not only a waste management policy, but is a way to recover raw materials and not to overstretch the already scarce resources of our planet, also by profoundly innovating our production system," she said.

A major goal of the circular economy package is to make waste disposal in landfills an exception, setting a 10 percent maximum limit on municipal waste put in landfills by 2035. Five EU countries, including Cyprus, Croatia, Greece, Latvia and Malta, still landfill over three quarters of municipal waste, according to European Commission figures.

Aligning itself with United Nations sustainable development goals, the new legislation sets out that EU member states should aim to reduce food waste by 30 percent by 2025 and 50 percent by 2030. Part of meeting these goals requires incentives for the collection of unsold food products and their safe redistribution, MEPs agreed.

In a statement for the European People's Party, the group's Waste Package negotiator Karl-Heinz Florenz (Germany) pointed out the economic benefits of an ecological transition to sustainable development.

"We have substantially improved environmental and climate protection, by reducing landfill amongst others, and at the same time we have put together an economic package for 80,000 potential new jobs and billions in economic growth," he said.

"Competitiveness and sustainable growth are two sides of the same coin. Europe cannot afford to lose 2.5 billion tons of raw materials due to miserable waste management, especially because of rising raw material costs," Florenz argued.

"Once properly implemented, the new EU waste package will make the European Union the world leader in waste management," said Frans Timmermans, First Vice President of the European Commission, in a statement on Monday to the European Parliament.

"This will unlock new resources of growth and innovation, create jobs, and reduce our dependence imports of critical raw materials and waste treatment abroad," he stressed.

Some MEPs and political groups said, however, that the progress made by the circular economy package was good but not sufficient for the EU's long-term ecological transition goals.

Socialist and Democrats vice president on sustainability Kathleen Van Brempt (Belgium) said in a statement for her political group that "this is only a first step". She highlighted the need to "keep working on energy savings and a zero-carbon economy".

"That is the only way forward," she said.

The circular economy package will now go back to the European Council where it can receive formal approval before being put into force.

According to European Commission figures, the EU produced 2.5 billion tons of waste in 2014, of which household waste accounted for 8 percent. Higher national rates for municipal waste per capita tended to be found in wealthier European countries, such as Denmark and Germany, though higher tourism contributed to municipal waste in countries like Malta and Cyprus. Enditem