A society without waste - Circular Economy Package at the European Parliament

On Wednesday 03 September 2014, the present Commissioner for the Environment Janez Poto?nik had an exchange of views on the Circular Economy Package with the ENVI Committee - Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety - during his last visit to the European Parliament. The Circular Economy Package explains how the European Commission (EC) wants to develop its own circular economy in the next fifteen years.

The Circular economy is the concept for developing a sustainable growth in a world of scarce resources and environmental degradation. Our present "take-make-dispose" model is a linear one and needs to be changed, shifting the focus to reusing, repairing, refurbishing and recycling - i.e. the circular economy.

Turning waste into a resource is what the Circular Economy Package aims to do. "A society without waste!" is how Commissioner Poto?nik described Europe in front of Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) in his last hearing. He affirmed that Europe needs a change since it is locked in old resources, whose price is rising, and it is totally dependent on the outside world.

In particular, the EC aims to increase the recycling and re-use of municipal waste to 70% by 2030; increase packaging waste recycling and re-use to 80% by 2030; phase-out landfills by 2025 in favour of recyclable waste in non-hazardous waste landfills; reduce food waste generation by 30% by 2025; introduce an early warning system to avoid possible compliance difficulties; ensure full traceability of hazardous waste; increase the cost-effectiveness of Extended Producer Responsibility schemes by defining minimum conditions; simplify the reporting obligations and lighten obligations affecting SMEs.

However, policy-makers, businesses and citizens have their own responsibilities for the success of this policy. Policy-makers are supposed to provide the framework conditions, predictability and confidence to businesses; improve the role of consumers; and define how citizens can secure the benefits of these changes. Businesses should redesign supply chains for resource efficiency and circularity with the help of innovation and social transformation. Citizens have to understand how important their day-by-day recycling is on their own lives, and commit themselves to it every day.

This revolution will create new markets and jobs. Achieving the waste targets should create 180,000 new posts, while making Europe more competitive and reducing the demand for costly scarce resources. The economic crisis that the EU is going through supposes a change of paradigm: passing from a linear to a circular economy is this change. Transforming waste into wealth is not the whole solution, but is part of it for sure.

To read the Circular Economy Package: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52014DC0398

The EC page about circular economy: https://ec.europa.eu/environment/circular-economy/

The hearing of Commissioner Janez Poto?nik (Wed, 3 Sep 2014 15:00 - 18:30 - 10.0 Exchange of views with Mr Janez Poto?nik, Commissioner for the Environment on the "Circular Economy Package"): https://www.europarl.europa.eu/ep-live/en/committees/video?event=20140903-0900-COMMITTEE-ENVI