#NoTimeToWaste: Member States delay meeting the inevitable targets

In 2018, the European Union came out with a set of laws which many hailed as the world’s most ambitious to boost recycling and cut waste. The three pieces of legislation, reforming the Waste Framework Directive, the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive and the Landfill Directive, would:

• Prevent packaging waste
• Make it easier to sort and collect different materials for recycling
• Reduce food waste
• Introduce financial incentives to boost the reuse of packaging
• Ban the incineration and landfilling of waste collected for recycling
• Set higher targets for recycling
• Make producers pay more for the collection and recycling of cans and bottles.

But as is the case with any legislation coming out of EU institutions, the key is how EU countries put them into national law.

EU Member States were legally obliged to transpose the EU waste laws by 5 July 2020. But according to a new report by ClientEarth, the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) and Ecoteca, most EU countries have missed the July deadline.

The report analyses the actions taken by 16 governments, which are all falling short of their obligations to adopt the new laws.

Luján, who co-wrote the report, said: “Even before the Covid-19 pandemic, governments across Europe were dragging their feet on the implementation of these critical measures to reduce waste – a reckless move for the environment and for our health.

“With the current situation likely to lead to an increase in all sorts of waste, governments cannot bury their heads in the sand. By not moving forward with a more circular model, we are losing out on massive environmental and economic benefits – and digging ourselves deeper into the rubbish heap.”