Municipal Waste Management in EU

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Municipal Waste Management in EU

• DG Environment European Commission

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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.

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Municipal waste why cause problems

• Diversified composition
• Dispersed generation
• Visible!
• Problems with financing how to apply producer
  pays principle?

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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

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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.

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Projected generation and landfilling of municipal
waste in the EU-25

• Source CEC, 2006. EEA Landfill Brochure.

• Source EEA, 2007

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Structure of waste legislation
Framework Legislation
Horizontal Legislation
Waste Stream Specific Legislation
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Some targets in waste legislation
    min recovery min 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
Batteries 2016     45
Batteries 2010 50 to 75 (efficiency) 50 to 75 (efficiency)  
Tires 2006 0 landfill of tyres 0 landfill of tyres 0 landfill of tyres
Biodegradable municipal waste 2006 reduction of landfilling to 75 of the 1995 level reduction of landfilling to 75 of the 1995 level reduction of landfilling to 75 of the 1995 level
Biodegradable municipal waste 2009 reduction of landfilling to 50 of the 1995 level reduction of landfilling to 50 of the 1995 level reduction of landfilling to 50 of the 1995 level
Biodegradable municipal waste 2016 reduction of landfilling to 35 of the 1995 level reduction of landfilling to 35 of the 1995 level reduction of landfilling to 35 of the 1995 level
Household waste 2020 50 recycling 50 recycling 50 recycling
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Landfill directive distance to
targetsBiodegradable waste landfilled in 2003
compared to generation in 1996

• Source CEC, 2006. EEA Landfill Brochure.

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Municipal waste composition examples
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Municipal waste generation kg/capita
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Recycling, incineration and landfilling of MSW
Source EEA, 2007.
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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

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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

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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

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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/environme
  nt/waste/compost/index.htm

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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