FEAD co-signed with four other organsiations a Joint Statement on the European Commission’s legislative proposal on the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and on the Cohesion Fund 2021-2027.
The undersigning associations support an integrated waste management approach with an appropriate and sustainable interaction of source separation, reuse and recycling, energy recovery and environmentally sound disposal of waste that cannot be recovered. It is by applying this approach that the most virtuous countries (in terms of recycling) have achieved their results.
Cohesion funds are important instruments to help Member States that still have low recycling rates and depend heavily on landfills, to create a sustainable waste management system using adequate investment to set up an effective separation collection scheme paired with the appropriate infrastructure needed to treat each stream. This includes sorting, preparation for reuse, recycling, biowaste treatment and residual waste treatment infrastructure in line with the Waste Hierarchy.
Read more about our joint position here.
Following the first trilogue on Single Use Plastics Directive, FEAD, the European Federation of Waste Management and Environmental Services co-signed with 26 industry organisations and environmental NGOs, a joint statement to urge the Council to support the binding target of at least 35% recycled plastic in beverage bottles by 2025.
This target voted by the European Parliament on 24 October is instrumental in the achievement of the objectives of the Single Use Plastics (SUP) Directive and in igniting the much supported transition towards a more circular economy. It would be a historical step, correcting a much overdue market failure to not value recycled material more while unlocking much needed investment in collection and recycling.
Setting a mandatory recycled plastic target for beverage bottles, where food safety considerations are fully complied with, will immediately have positive knock-on effects on improving and increasing the collection rate of these SUP and is hence vital in achieving the 90% collection target set by the Proposal.
Read our Joint Statement to find out more here.
The Waste Shipment Regulation (WSR) is an important piece of legislation at EU level to ensure safe shipments of waste, traceability and to guarantee an appropriate treatment of waste at its final destination. Therefore, FEAD has actively followed the evaluation of the current Waste Shipment Regulation by answering the public consultations, sending a position paper and participating in both workshops.
Although FEAD members understand that this procedure of evaluation is part of a standardised European review for a better regulation, we nevertheless regret that the assessment of the WSR has not placed a greater emphasis on identifying solutions at this stage and ensuring that the WSR is not just preferable to national legislation, but as effective as possible at achieving its intended aims, including facilitating the recovery of secondary raw materials.
That’s why, we stress again that the shortcomings we have identified are not due to the WSR itself, but to inconsistencies or problem of interpretation with other related pieces of the legislation (i.e differences of interpretation between waste/non-waste, hazardous/non-hazardous waste and recovery/disposal) or with differences of enforcement within the EU Member States. However, we do believe that part of the solution to this lies in amending legislation.
You may find our letter sent to the European Commission here.
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