Municipal Waste Municipal Waste Management in EUManagement 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, 2006. EEA Landfill Brochure.

Structure of waste legislation

Framework Legislation

Horizontal Legislation

Waste Stream Specific Legislation

Waste Prevention and Recycling

StrategyNew Waste Framework

Directive (WFD)2008/98/EC

Waste Streams

Waste Treatment Operations

Landfill1999/31/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 DirectiveDir.91/689/EEC

Waste Shipment Regulation(Reg. (EEC) 259/93 replaced by

1013/2006/EC)

Framework Legislation

Incineration2000/76/EC; to be replaced by

new IPPC

Mining Waste2006/21/EC

Recyclingsee 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repealed by new WFD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 2010-11

Biological treatment

no legislation yet

Supporting legislation: waste lists, reporting

obligations etc.

Some targets in waste legislation

 min

recoverymin recycling collection rate

Packaging 2008 60% 55% (+ for specific materials)

 

Cars 2015 95% 85% 100%

Electronics 2006 70% 50%min 4 kg per inhabitant per

year

Batteries2016   45%

2010 50% to 75% (efficiency)  

Tires 2006 0 landfill of tyres

Biodegradable municipal waste

2006 reduction of landfilling to 75% of the 1995 level

2009 reduction of landfilling to 50% of the 1995 level

2016 reduction of landfilling to 35% of the 1995 level

Household waste 2020 50% recycling

Landfill directive – distance to targets:Biodegradable waste landfilled in 2003 compared to generation

in 1996

Source: CEC, 2006. 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); http://www.defra.gov.uk/ENVIRONMENT/waste/research/health/index.htm

Green Paper on bio-waste

Published 3rd 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: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/compost/index.htmhttp://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/compost/index.htm

Thank you for your attention!

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/index.htm

European Commission – DG ENV.G.4

Sustainable Consumption and Production

Avenue de Beaulieu 5, B-1160 Brussels