Waste management and circular economy

The European Parliament is preparing its position on the revision of several directives on waste management. As towns and cities are directly affected by these directives, CEMR, EUROCITIES and Municipal Waste Europe have come together to put forth 6 proposals for better local waste management in Europe.

In their common position, the three networks stress how towns and cities, as public service providers, have extensive experience in sustainable waste management, and could help achieve a circular economy in Europe. Furthermore, given that there is even a common EU target to recycle 65% of municipal waste by 2030 the revision of directives on the topic needs to take their opinion into account. 

How can we improve local waste management in Europe? 

In the interest of towns and cities and for more sustainable waste management in Europe; our networks agreed the six following points need to be taken into account in the final directives:
 

• Broaden the definition of municipal waste to make the implementation of waste policies easier
• Partnerships between waste producers and local governments need to make clear that all waste costs are covered (and not just “optimised costs”, like the current directives say)
• Also target other sectors than municipal waste in EU waste legislation (90% of waste is not municipal!)
• Increase funding availability for towns and cities, so they can implement the new requirements
• Create knowledge platforms to enable the exchange of best practices for a transition towards a circular economy
• Set up waste prevention measures

Our joint statement has been sent to Simona Bonafè, the European Parliament’s rapporteur on this issue, in order to make sure her report takes into account the position of European towns and cities.