The European project as we know it is running out of steam and it is not capable of delivering on its objectives of peace, prosperity, and equality.
In order to stay within the commitment of 1.5°C degrees warming, the broken paradigm based on economic growth should be replaced with a new one. Our Manifesto calls on the need for building a new European project based on wellbeing, sufficiency, and resilience.
In a joint letter addressed to the Permanent Representations of EU member states, Zero Waste Europe and 17 other civil society organisations urge the EU to reduce its municipal waste incineration capacities; and to fully exploit the climate protection potential of waste prevention and recycling, in order to achieve the EU’s climate protection targets.
Available in English.
The war in Ukraine has led to major shifts in the EU’s energy markets. A combination of Russia’s weaponising of its energy supplies by reducing supply, particularly of gas, allied with a determination on the part of the majority of EU member states to stem the flow of energy-related revenue to Russia, has led to a significant increase in the price of gas in wholesale markets. The waste management industry has advanced its case as a potential contributor to a solution to the gas and climate crises. It has claimed that incineration and co-incineration could be deployed more widely than is currently the case, with claimed benefits for climate change and fossil fuel consumption.
Written by Equanimator Ltd on behalf of Zero Waste Europe, this report disproves that notion, comprehensively showing that waste-to-energy only dispels 1.1% of the EU27 consumption of Russian gas.
Full report available in English. Executive Summary available in English, Croatian, Hungarian, and Polish.
Commissioned by Zero Waste Europe and the Rethink Plastic alliance to the Öko-Institut, this study compares seven scenarios for the future of plastic packaging in the European Union (EU) from a climate perspective, following the projected amounts of recycled plastics needed by 2030.
Available in English.
This study seeks to understand the quantity of residues generated by incineration of waste in the EU, and what happens to those residues – in particular, how much residue may be being landfilled.
Although the report is focused mainly on incineration, it sought to understand the quantity of residues from both incineration and co-incineration when considering ‘all wastes’. The Industrial Emissions Directive distinguishes these according to whether the facility is ‘dedicated to the thermal treatment of waste’ (incineration) or a facility whose main purpose is the generation of energy or production of material products (co-incineration).
Available in English (report and executive summary) and Polish (executive summary only).
ZWE, ClientEarth, DUH, ECOS, EEB and Sekab sent a joint letter to the European Commission on the clarification on the manufacture of plastic packaging goods in the fourth delegated act of the EU Taxonomy.
The letter puts forward a number of recommendations to ensure appropriate technical screening criteria that are in line with a transition towards a circular economy.
Available in English.
Zero Waste Europe (ZWE), Zero Waste Alliance Ukraine (ZWAU) and Break Free From Plastic (BFFP) sent a letter to the President of the European Commission concerning the role of incineration in Ukraine’s Recovery Plan. The letter puts forward a number of concerns related to the prospective EU funding facilitating the increase of incineration capacity in Ukraine as part of the country’s recovery plan.
Available in English.
To further limit the waste shipped outside its territory, the EU is looking at adopting new waste export bans. In this case, any surplus of waste should be absorbed by intra-EU recycling, prevention, and reuse activities. However, the incineration industry claims that potential waste export restrictions should lead to an increase in the need for incineration capacity.
This study demonstrates that the need for further incineration capacity resulting from new waste export bans is neither necessary nor justified.
Available in English.
In a letter sent to the European Commission, ECOS, Zero Waste Europe, and the Rethink Plastic alliance ask EU Commissioners Thierry Breton and Virginijus Sinkevicius to stop the development of a Standardisation Request on ‘plastics recycling and recycled plastics’. This is the first stage for new standards on the matter.
In Europe, waste incinerators are on the rise, often being promoted as a safe way to dispose of our waste. The way emissions are measured only represents a tiny snapshot of the incinerator’s output – meaning, not all incineration emissions are evaluated. Zero Waste Europe coordinated a biomonitoring research on incinerator emissions across Europe, together with ToxicoWatch, Hnuti Duha, Ziedine Ekonomika, and Ecologists en Accion Spain. Biomonitoring is the measurement of pollutants which spread into the surrounding environment of an incinerator, and can be found within living organisms.
Full report and infographics available in English.
Executive Summary available in English, Croatian, and German.
This report uses independent empirical research to evidence that incinerator bottom ash is insidiously hazardous and underregulated. Risk is heightened by the fact that testing methods for its use as a building material are outdated. A list of fifteen concerns for public health and safety is provided in relation to the use of waste incinerator bottom ash in cement-based products and as road/pathway aggregate. Calls for the support of its use within a circular economy are premature, and, as per the precautionary principle, all ongoing usage should cease. Examination of independently analysed bottom ash provides a diagnostic on the operational steady state of waste incinerators, incidentally raising concerns about operational compliance with emissions legislation and the capacity of incinerators to produce benign bottom ash when fed with municipal solid waste.
Available in English, Czech, French, and Traditional Chinese.
The objective of this briefing is to provide a recommendation for categorising thermal decomposition of plastic waste into feedstock molecules as chemical recovery. This covers mainly pyrolysis and gasification techniques.
The European waste hierarchy for a circular economy must be operationalised to favour reduction, reuse, and, as a last resort, recycling. It is, thus, essential to distinguish plastic waste recycling operations from recovery techniques. As such, pre-treatment of plastic waste into feedstock molecule shall be classified as chemical recovery and not chemical recycling.
Available in English.
The current EU residual waste policy lacks emphasis on waste reduction, which then creates a paradox – it doesn’t matter how much is waste produced, only the percentage of it that is landfilled. There is a need for a new policy framework that prioritises the minimisation of generated residual waste. This would not only reward waste reduction efforts, but also give proper focus to its high place in the waste hierarchy. More importantly, it would position residual waste reduction as the way forward towards circularity and sustainability.
This report presents a comprehensive analysis and arguments on the need to improve the Landfill Directive and the Waste Framework Directive, highlighting residual waste reduction as a crucial tool to ensure alignment with the overarching principles of the EU Circular Economy Agenda.
Available in English.
Municipal waste incineration is currently excluded from the European Emissions Trading System (EU ETS). If incineration is included, waste companies will have to buy emission credits for each tonne of CO2 they emit when treating household, company, and industrial waste. This additional cost of incineration can act as an incentive for waste prevention and recycling, which will then become more competitive (less costly) than incineration.
A shift of (not biologically pre-treated) waste to landfills should be avoided and is already restricted under the Landfill Directive.
The results of this study, requested by Zero Waste Europe and carried out by CE Delft, show that including incineration under the EU ETS would indeed encourage waste prevention and recycling, yielding both climate and employment benefits.
AVAILABLE IN ENGLISH
Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is being explored in response to climate concerns. When considering CCS for incinerators, it should be kept in mind that the top rung of the carbon mitigation hierarchy is generally accepted to be the ‘do not build’ option, i.e. to “evaluate the basic need for the project and explore alternative approaches to achieve the desired outcome/s”. Following this principle, proponents of CCS typically seek to justify their carbon capture projects on the basis that there is no viable alternative approach to delivering a necessary good or service. As there are viable alternative approaches to both resource management and energy generation, such an argument cannot be applied to defend CCS for municipal waste incinerators (MWIs).
This report presents key general and specific arguments on how CCS for incinerators is a distraction, instead of a solution, to incinerators’ carbon problem.
Available in English
Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) Europe, with the input and support of Zero Waste Europe, Rethink Plastic and a total of 18 leading health and environmental organisations, has released a paper presenting a detailed insight into the complexity of health and environmental issues associated with the entire life cycle of PVC. All current evidence supports the simple proposition that PVC is problematic and that it presents significant, often avoidable health issues – the paper also includes examples of already successful phase-outs of PVC.
If the label on the bottle in your hand said it was made from recycled plastic, would you believe it? Depending on the method behind the claim, the bottle might contain little to no recycled content at all.
This booklet presents infographic renditions of the recommendations from the “Determining recycled content with the ‘mass balance approach’ – 10 recommendations for development of methods and standards” position paper, originally published on January 2021.
Available in English
To ensure the EU is having a neutral impact on climate change by 2050, the European Commission is currently reviewing all relevant EU policies, including the Emissions Trading System (ETS), and proposing extending the ETS to new sectors of the economy. This revision is a crucial opportunity to subject this carbon-intensive municipal waste incineration industry to the “polluter pays” principle by pricing in the carbon cost of burning waste to progressively reduce emissions from the sector.
Available in English
