Following the adoption by the European Parliament of the final agreement on the Circular Economy Package, FEAD members have welcomed the progress made to pave the way for the transition to a circular economy.
The private waste and resource management industry welcomes the legally binding targets, as a necessary push towards better collection and sorting of waste. FEAD welcomes the fact that the municipal waste definition is without prejudice to the allocation of responsibilities for waste management between public and private actors.
However, it can be regretted that the municipal waste definition does not include the criterion on quantity to clearly draw the line between municipal waste on one hand and commercial and industrial waste on the other hand. FEAD members look forward to solid and precise guidelines to be developed by the Commission for setting a clear demarcation between municipal waste and similar waste from large commerce and industry which are rightly excluded from the calculation of the municipal waste recycling targets.
A clear demarcation will also be a crucial aspect in view of the announced targets for non-hazardous commercial and industrial waste to be developed by 2025 supported by FEAD. A truly circular economy will not be created if only municipal waste is taken into account.
Regarding economic measures, FEAD President, Jean-Marc Boursier regrets that the final text does not include stronger pull measures to support the uptake of secondary raw materials: “The Package will need to be accompanied by measures to incentivise the whole supply chain; such concrete measures still need to be developed. We look forward to the upcoming actions mentioned in the Plastics Strategy and we welcome the accelerated work on the interface aspects between chemicals, waste and product policies which will contribute to creating confidence in recycled materials by manufacturers who need quality and supply certainty. Voluntary pledges by industry and targets themselves are not a sufficient solid basis for ensuring the uptake of secondary raw material, in a robust and long term European market, which is a pre-requisite for innovations and the required huge investments.”
