Municipal Waste Management in EU DG Environment European Commission

Municipal waste – definition and scope  No definition in legislation!  Common sense definitions:  waste generated by households and similar waste from other sources  Waste collected by municipal services  There is no specific legislation on municipal waste but they are addressed in several acts.

Municipal waste – why cause problems  Diversified composition  Dispersed generation  Visible!  Problems with financing – how to apply producer pays principle?

Municipal waste – environmental problems  Emissions from waste treatment (especially methane emissions from landfilling)  Wasting of resources  Problem no 1 – limiting the landfilling  Problem no 2 – increase recycling and recovery

Diverting waste from landfills  Some Member States still rely heavily on landfilling e.g. Ireland, UK, Greece, Spain & EU-12  High number of illegal landfills in the EU - negative impact on air, water, soil (e.g. methane, leachate)  A lot of biowaste is diverted from landfills – even more has to be done.

Projected generation and landfilling of municipal waste in the EU-25 Source: EEA, 2007 Source: CEC, EEA Landfill Brochure.

Structure of waste legislation Framework Legislation Horizontal Legislation Waste Stream Specific Legislation

Waste Prevention and Recycling Strategy New Waste Framework Directive (WFD) 2008/98/EC Waste Streams Waste Treatment Operations Landfill 1999/31/EC Sewage Sludge 86/278/EEC Batteries and Accumulators 91/157/EEC replaced by 2006/66/EC Packaging and Packaging Waste 94/62/EC PCBs 96/59/EC End-of-life Vehicles 2000/53 EC Hazardous Waste Directive Dir.91/689/EEC Waste Shipment Regulation (Reg. (EEC) 259/93 replaced by 1013/2006/EC) Framework Legislation Incineration 2000/76/EC; to be replaced by new IPPC Mining Waste 2006/21/EC Recycling see new WFD Waste oils 75/439/EEC Titanium Dioxide 78/176/EEC Waste electric and electronic equipment WEEE 2002/96/EC Restriction of Hazardous Substances RoHS Dir.2002/95/EC repealed by new WFD To be replaced by new IPPC Up-date in Biological treatment no legislation yet Supporting legislation: waste lists, reporting obligations etc.

Some targets in waste legislation min recovery min recycling collection rate Packaging % 55% (+ for specific materials) Cars %85%100% Electronics %50% min 4 kg per inhabitant per year Batteries % % to 75% (efficiency) Tires landfill of tyres Biodegradable municipal waste 2006reduction of landfilling to 75% of the 1995 level 2009reduction of landfilling to 50% of the 1995 level 2016reduction of landfilling to 35% of the 1995 level Household waste % recycling

Landfill directive – distance to targets: Biodegradable waste landfilled in 2003 compared to generation in 1996 Source: CEC, EEA Landfill Brochure.

Municipal waste composition – examples

Municipal waste generation [kg/capita]

Recycling, incineration and landfilling of MSW Source: EEA, 2007.

Treatment techniques used  Generally waste hierarchy applies – usually recycling is the best  No single best technology for municipal waste treatment – except landfilling as singe WORST technology  E.g. in comparisons between incineration and biological treatment life cycle approach suggests some of the key factors as follows:  Amount of energy recovered by incineration  Type of energy replaced by incineration  Local market for compost and what type of products replaced by compost (peat, fertilizers)  Promising results of anaerobic digestion – delivering renewable energy as biogas and still digestate can be further used on soil

Economic issues The capital and operating costs of MSW management and biological treatment of waste depend on multiple factors and vary regionally and locally – so there is close to impossible to have general data or make comparisons In the study for European Commission the following financial cost estimates of management of bio-waste were proposed as assumptions representative for the EU-15 (2002):  Separate collection of bio-waste followed by composting: 35 to 75 €/tonne;  Separate collection of bio-waste followed by anaerobic digestion: 80 to125 €/tonne;  Landfill of mixed waste: 55 €/tonne;  Incineration of mixed waste: 90 €/tonne.  the additional costs of separate collection at 0-15 €/tonne

Health issues  Very limited epidemiological data  UK study for DEFRA suggests very limited or no impact on health  DEFRA 2004, Review of environmental and health effects of waste management: municipal solid waste and similar wastes (DEFRA, May 2004);

Green Paper on bio-waste  Published 3 rd of December  First step in the assessment for the potential proposal on the new legislation  May be used as base for further reading (many references)  For more info visit:

Thank you for your attention! European Commission – DG ENV.G.4 Sustainable Consumption and Production Avenue de Beaulieu 5, B-1160 Brussels