Transcript Municipal Waste Management in EU

Municipal Waste
Management 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: CEC, 2006. EEA Landfill Brochure.
Source: EEA, 2007
Structure of waste legislation
Framework Legislation
Horizontal Legislation
Waste Stream Specific Legislation
Waste Prevention
and Recycling
Strategy
New Waste Framework
Directive (WFD)
2008/98/EC
Framework Legislation
Hazardous Waste Directive
Dir.91/689/EEC
Waste Shipment Regulation
(Reg. (EEC) 259/93 replaced by
1013/2006/EC)
Supporting legislation:
waste lists, reporting
obligations etc.
Waste Treatment
Operations
Incineration
2000/76/EC; to be replaced by
new IPPC
Landfill
1999/31/EC
Recycling
see new WFD
Biological
treatment
no legislation yet
Waste Streams
Waste oils
Titanium
Dioxide
Sewage
Sludge
78/176/EEC
86/278/EEC
75/439/EEC
repealed
by new
WFD
To be
replaced by
new IPPC
Up-date in
2010-11
Batteries and
Accumulators
91/157/EEC
replaced by
2006/66/EC
Packaging and
Packaging Waste
PCBs
End-of-life
Vehicles
96/59/EC
94/62/EC
2000/53 EC
Waste electric
and electronic
equipment
WEEE
Restriction of
Hazardous
Substances
RoHS
2002/96/EC
Dir.2002/95/EC
Mining Waste
2006/21/EC
Some targets in waste legislation
min
recovery
min
recycling
55% (+ for
collection rate
Packaging
2008
60%
Cars
2015
95%
85%
100%
Electronics
2006
70%
50%
min 4 kg per inhabitant per
year
specific materials)
2016
45%
Batteries
2010
Tires
Biodegradable
municipal
waste
Household
waste
50% to 75% (efficiency)
2006
0 landfill of tyres
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
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.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