This report by the Scientific Foresight Unit (STOA) of EPRS- European Parliamentary Research Service examines the role of waste management in the context of a circular economy transition. The full text of the report is available here: https://goo.gl/9wrXiU
Summary:
Key challenges relate to moving beyond the perception of ‘waste as a problem’ to ‘waste as a resource’. To this end high levels of cooperation are needed between the waste industry and enterprises engaged in circular economy business models. Collecting high quality waste streams for re-use, remanufacturing and recycling also requires citizen engagement and integrated infrastructure development from the municipal to the EU level.
Ultimately, both waste prevention as well as a widespread growth in circular economy activities will require a coherent and holistic approach that takes recovery options into account at every stage of the product life cycle. Co-benefits will include reducing environmental burden as well as creating both high-skilled and low-skilled jobs for an inclusive, green economy.
In concrete terms, this report examines five waste streams identified in the EU’s Circular Economy Action Plan: municipal waste, packaging waste, food waste, bio-waste and critical raw materials. It looks at the current state of policy development, presents trends and data comparing Member State
performance, reviews the state of technological development, and assesses employment
opportunities relevant to each waste stream in the overarching context of assessing progress toward the circular economy transition in the EU.
Case studies of specific options for collecting and treating waste based on experiences in Denmark, Italy and Slovenia complement the more macro-level analysis of trends.
Finally, key policy options are identified, in particular focused on ways to prevent waste, align circular economy and waste management objectives and improve the quality and reliability of indicators toward more robust monitoring.
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1. Go to report at https://goo.gl/9wrXiU for an easier read of diagram.
2. The policy option:” Develop a monitoring system tracking and evaluating progress toward a circular economy, including a dashboard of economic, environmental and social indicators” is one we find of particular interest.
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REPORT CONTENTS
LIST OF FIGURES. 5
LIST OF TABLES 6
LIST OF BOXES. 8
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS . 9
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. 11
1 INTRODUCTION. 15
1.1 WASTE MANAGEMENT – WHAT IS THE CHALLENGE? . 15
1.2 WASTE MANAGEMENT IN THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY 16
1.3 THE OBJECTIVES AND SCOPE OF THIS STUDY . 18
2 THE CURRENT POLICY FRAMEWORK . 20
2.1 THE POLICY FRAMEWORK FOR A CIRCULAR ECONOMY . 20
2.2 POLICY INSTRUMENTS IN THE CURRENT WASTE MANAGEMENT SECTOR . 22
2.3 WASTE PREVENTION. 23
2.4 MUNICIPAL WASTE. 24
2.5 PACKAGING AND PACKAGING WASTE 25
2.6 FOOD WASTE . 26
2.7 BIO-WASTE AND RESIDUES. 27
2.8 CRITICAL RAW MATERIALS. 28
2.9 WASTEWATER. 28
2.10 TRANSPOSITION OF EU LEGISLATION. 29
2.11 REGIONAL SUPPORT . 29
3 MONITORING CURRENT PERFORMANCE: KEY TRENDS AND INDICATORS . 31
3.1 WASTE GENERATION, TREATMENT AND TRENDS IN THE EU-28 . 31
3.2 TOWARD A CIRCULAR ECONOMY . 50
3.3 KEY CHALLENGES RELATED TO DATA, MONITORING AND INTERPRETATION 58
4 TECHNOLOGIES FOR WASTE MANAGEMENT . 63
4.1 MUNICIPAL WASTE. 63
4.2 PACKAGING AND PACKAGING WASTE 67
4.3 BIO-WASTE AND RESIDUES (INCLUDING FOOD WASTE). 70
4.4 CRITICAL RAW MATERIALS. 73
4.5 KEY CHALLENGES. 76
5 EMPLOYMENT AND INDUSTRY CONSIDERATIONS. 78
5.1 CURRENT EMPLOYMENT ESTIMATES. 78
5.2 FUTURE EMPLOYMENT PROJECTIONS. . 81 5.3 EMPLOYMENT BY ACTIVITY. 83
5.4 POTENTIAL SKILL REQUIREMENTS. 84
5.5 SMALL AND MEDIUM SIZED ENTERPRISES. 86
6 CASE STUDIES OF WASTE MANAGEMENT IN ACTION. 89
6.1 DENMARK – MIXED COLLECTION AND INCINERATION FOR ENERGY. 89
6.2 ITALY – MIXED COLLECTION AND SORTING WITH MECHANICAL BIOLOGICAL TREATMENT. 90
6.3 SLOVENIA – SORTED COLLECTION WITH SIGNIFICANT RECYCLING SUCCESS 92
6.4 TOWARD A STEEPED ANALYSIS . 94
7 POLICY OPTIONS .97
7.1 PROMOTE WASTE PREVENTION. 99
7.2 ALIGN WASTE MANAGEMENT OBJECTIVES WITH THOSE OF THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY, AND VICE VERSA. 100
7.3 PROMOTE RELIABLE, HARMONISED AND CONSISTENT REPORTING AND MONITORING OF WASTE STATISTICS AS WELL AS RESEARCH TOWARD A CIRCULAR ECONOMY . 104
8 REFERENCES . 108
ANNEX 1: LIST OF INTERVIEWEES. 116
ANNEX 2: CHALLENGES AND GAPS RELATED TO DEFINITIONS .117
ANNEX 3: A SUMMARY OF THE INPUTS, RECYCLING RATES AND LANDFILLING OF PRIORITY MATERIALS (2012) 119
ANNEX 4: EUROSTAT WASTE CATEGORY ANALYSIS .120
ANNEX 5: PERFORMANCE OF EU-28 IN 2012 AGAINST THE PROPOSED EU CIRCULAR ECONOMY PACKAGE 2030 TARGETS . 128
ANNEX 6: EXAMPLES OF FUNDED CRM AND BATTERY PROJECTS. 129
ANNEX 7: WASTE TREATMENT TECHNOLOGIES – ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS 130
ANNEX 8: EXAMPLES OF VALORISATION OF BIO-WASTES
* Image: Being wise to waste. http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/
* * * The full text of the report is available here: https://goo.gl/9wrXiU
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About the authors:
The STOA project was carried out by Oakdene Hollins (UK) at the request of the Science and Technology Options Assessment Panel, and managed by the Scientific Foresight Unit (STOA) within the Directorate-General for Parliamentary Research Services (DG EPRS) of the European Parliament. Revision and finalisation of the study was performed by the Wuppertal Institute (DE), Circular
Economy Research Unit, at the request of STOA.
AUTHORS
Oakdene Hollins: Peter Lee, Edward Sims, Olivia Bertham, Harry Symington, Nia Bell, Lucie
Pfaltzgraff and Pernilla Sjögren.
Wuppertal Institute: Henning Wilts and Meghan O’Brien, with support from Justus Benke.
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About the editor:
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Eric Britton
13, rue Pasteur. Courbevoie 92400 FranceBio: Founding editor of World Streets (1988), Eric Britton is an American political scientist, teacher, occasional consultant, and sustainability activist who has observed, learned, taught and worked on missions and advisory assignments on all continents. In the autumn of 2019, he committed his remaining life work to the challenges of aggressively countering climate change and specifically greenhouse gas emissions emanating from the mobility sector. He is not worried about running out of work. Further background and updates: @ericbritton | http://bit.ly/2Ti8LsX | #fekbritton | https://twitter.com/ericbritton | and | https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericbritton/ Contact: climate@newmobility.org) | +336 508 80787 (Also WhatApp) | Skype: newmobility.)
Sustainable Development, Economy and Democracy 