Brussels -- On 30 September 2011, FEAD President, Peter Kurth, welcomed more than 120 participants from 18 Member States to FEAD’s Annual Conference in Helsinki, Finland. The event was co-organised by FEAD’s Finnish Member Association, YYL. This year FEAD celebrated its 30th anniversary. To mark the occasion, Helsinki saw the launch of the FEAD brochure “30 years of interest representation of the European waste management industry” .

The first session of the conference was dedicated to the Resource Efficiency Roadmap published on 20 September 2011. Rosalinde van der Vlies, Deputy Head of the Waste Management Unit, DG ENV, explained that “if we want to be serious about implementing the EU-2020 Strategy, governments should support the waste management business”. She reported that waste management policy “underlines the synergy between more competitive economy and sustainable development as it is well reflected in FEAD’s mission - Effective, practical legislation and its enforcement lead to environmental sustainability in a competitive market.”

A lot of investments necessary

MEP Riikka Manner (ALDE), member of the Regional Policy Committee and substitute member of the Environment Committee stated: “It is not cheap to make the world more resource efficient. We need a lot of investments, public but also private, in the free economy. The proposal for a multi-annual framework for 2014-2020 integrates resource efficiency in the EU budget. [...] Regional policy has a crucial role in supporting initiatives on the efficient use of resources [...] including the incorporation of EU priorities for sustainable development”.

No immediate zero waste dream

Christophe Cros, Vice-President of FEAD, welcomed the Resource Efficiency Roadmap. He explained that operators are convinced that it opens a window of opportunities for the waste management sector. “We are prepared to contribute to its realisation through our investments, the exchange of best practices and the transfer of our know-how”. He pleaded for common tools including carbon footprint methodologies, for the sake of analysis and comparability of treatment methods. He also called for a better coordination of the organisation of take-back schemes and extended producer responsibility at European level. In his view, the requirement on minimum recyclable content can only work, if the same level of attention is also granted to eco-design of products. Christophe Cros advocated for a progressive approach, warning against “the immediate zero waste dream”. He explained that time is required to put in place the appropriate infrastructure to meet the new challenges, concluding that “private waste management companies ought to be given a better access to fair competition, public-private partnerships and EU-funding”.

A hierarchy of usage

The second session was dedicated to innovation. Abraao Carvalho, Head of Unit Metals, Minerals and Raw Materials, DG Enterprise and Industry highlighted the importance of the upcoming Innovation Partnership on raw materials for the waste management sector and underlined that it will the second Innovation Partnership showing clearly the political attention drawn on raw materials.
Meanwhile for MEP Sirpa Pietikäinen, member of the Environment Committee, waste management is a growing business. She called for a “hierarchy of usage”, whereby the use of primary resources would be minimised and pleaded for a shift of taxation on resource use.

Better implementation needed

The last session was dedicated to better implementation of the waste legislative acquis. Rosalinde van der Vlies reported on the poor implementation of waste legislation: 19 percent of the environmental infringement cases address waste management policy. She announced the upcoming publication of a Communication on implementation, which will propose increased cooperation with the European Environmental Agency. And Zofia Tucinska, Chair of IMPEL, highlighted how the Network for the Implementation and Enforcement of Environmental Legislation is contributing to better implementation, emphasising the importance of best practice exchange.

A remarkable analysis of the key obstacles to implementation of waste legislation in four Central and Eastern European Member States was delivered by Peter Hodecek. Key findings include large differences in existing waste management infrastructures; EU’s continued funding towards landfilling; and a lack of fair competition between public and private companies. All this hampers investments and transfer of know-how from the private sector. For him, Member States not in compliance with the waste legislation should no longer receive EU funding.

The next FEAD event is taking place on 10 May 2012 in the context of the IFAT fair in Munich, Germany.

Quelle: European Federation of Waste Management and Environmental Services (FEAD)

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