Luxembourg - At a meeting of the Council of Ministers - the 27 EU member states' environment ministers - in Luxembourg, they confirmed the Commission's plans to run an impact assessment on a potential directive for biodegradable wastes. The Council welcomed the publication of the Green Paper on the management of bio-waste in the European Union to launch an extensive discussion on options for the management of this kind of waste.

Noting that up to 139 million tonnes of bio-waste are estimated to arise in the European Union every year, the council expressed its concern that biodegradable waste becomes an important source of greenhouse gas emissions and other pollution when deposited in landfills without proper stabilisation.

So it encouraged the Commission to continue the impact assessment with a view to preparing, if appropriate, a EU legislative proposal on biodegradable waste by 2010. In particular, the Council invited the Commission to consider the need to stipulate, if appropriate and while
respecting the subsidiarity principle and taking into account local conditions:
(1) measures for the prevention of such waste;
(2) measures for introducing separate collection of biodegradable waste where necessary to guarantee a high quality for subsequent recycling;
(3) a quality assurance system, based on the principle of integrated chain management and traceability throughout the process up to the final receptor, without entailing disproportionate costs or administrative burdens;
(4) the establishment of requirements on the labelling and on quality criteria for compost and digestate as well as on quality criteria for recycled biodegradable waste that is intended for use on land to facilitate the management of this material and assist in stimulating the market by increasing consumer confidence.

The complete conclusions of the 2953rd Environment Council meeting at Luxembourg on 25 June 2009 can be downloaded under consilium.europa.eu.

Quelle: The Council of the European Union

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