Copenhagen - With landfill at the bottom of the European waste hierarchy, policies to divert waste from landfill play a very important role within European and national waste policies. A new report titled "Diverting waste from landfill" analyses the effectiveness of implemented policies on the diversion of total municipal waste and biodegradable municipal waste from landfill in the context of the 1999 EU Landfill Directive and other relevant directives. The European Environment Agency`s study finds that the EU Landfill Directive has been a positive force in altering management of biodegradable municipal waste in the EU.

The report explains how setting medium- and long-term targets for reducing landfilling has helped countries to define waste strategies and target investments. Adopted in 1999, the Landfill Directive was a milestone in EU waste policy. It responded to shortages of landfill capacity in some Member States, as well as methane emissions and water and soil pollution, which were serious concerns by the mid-1990s. The Directive aims to divert refuse from landfill, encouraging re-use, recycling and recovery.

The study is based on an in-depth evaluation of policies in five countries and one region of the EU, combined with an analysis of drivers of the generation, landfilling and incineration of municipal waste for 25 EU Member States. The European Environment Agency`s report analyses and compares waste management in Estonia, Finland, the Flemish Region of Belgium, Germany, Hungary and Italy to find out how practices and policies have shifted in the last decade. From the strategies and measures reviewed, it extracts important conclusions for policy-makers across the EU that will help in meeting the Directive's next targets in 2016 and beyond.

Ten years on, is there a success story to tell? Is the EU succeeding in shifting waste from landfill to more environmentally-friendly ways of managing waste? Which strategies and measures have proven most effective in different national and regional contexts?

The full report can be downloaded under eea.europa.eu.

Quelle: European Environment Agency

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