New EU waste recycling targets set

Euro-MPs have set new waste recycling targets - with court action on the cards for governments failing to enforce the limits.

A long tussle over new EU environmental standards ended in Strasbourg with agreement that 50% of household rubbish and 70% of construction and demolition waste must be recycled by 2020.

The compromise was condemned by Green MEPs as too weak - while the UK Independence Party claimed the move would lead to fewer bin collections and an increase in fly-tipping.

Conservative MEP Caroline Jackson, author of a waste report backed by a majority in the European Parliament, pushed through a deal which not only steps up recycling levels but also requires EU governments to draw up binding national programmes for waste prevention.

And the incineration of waste is now set to be seen by the European Commission in future as a "recovery" operation rather than disposal, as long as it meets agreed energy efficiency standards.

Mrs Jackson told MEPs: "It has been a long and tortuous road. There was much resistance to what we wanted to do and the Council (national government ministers) drove a very hard bargain. This is the best deal available. Anyone who thinks that we could get anything better would be deceiving themselves."

European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas welcomed the outcome: "This deal marks a shift in thinking about waste from an unwanted burden to a valued resource and helps to make Europe a recycling society." he said.

Challenged by MEPs that the result was too weak, he promised: "If these targets are not met in 2020, the Commission can take member states to court for non-compliance with the requirements of the Directive."

The new rules will oblige governments to establish waste management plans and waste prevention programmes five years after entry into the new Waste Framework Directive.

Treating waste incineration as "recovery" instead of disposal in future is designed to reduce the use of landfill. Under the rules, only the most energy efficient existing municipal solid waste incinerators will be classified as recovery installations, according to the Commission.