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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
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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: EEA, 2007 Source: CEC, 2006. EEA Landfill Brochure.
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 Waste Shipment Regulation (Reg. (EEC) 259/93 replaced by 1013/2006/EC) Supporting legislation: waste lists, reporting obligations etc. Hazardous Waste Directive Dir.91/689/EEC Waste Treatment Operations Incineration 2000/76/EC; to be replaced by new IPPC Landfill 1999/31/EC Recyclingsee new WFD Biological treatmentno legislation yet Waste Streams Waste oils 75/439/EEC Titanium Dioxide 78/176/EEC Sewage Sludge 86/278/EEC Batteries and Accumulators 91/157/EEC replaced by 2006/66/EC Packaging and Packaging Waste 94/62/EC PCBs 96/59/EC End-of-life Vehicles 2000/53 EC Waste electric and electronic equipment WEEE 2002/96/EC Restriction of Hazardous Substances RoHS Dir.2002/95/EC Mining Waste 2006/21/EC repealed by new WFD To be replaced by new IPPC Up-date in 2010-11
Landfill directive – distance to targets:Biodegradable waste landfilled in 2003 compared to generation in 1996 Source: CEC, 2006. EEA Landfill Brochure.
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