States Launch Broadside on EU Biowaste Future

Four EU member states unhappy at European commission unwillingness to propose an EU directive on biowaste treatment have launched a campaign canvassing support for the idea from other countries. Portugal, Spain, Germany and Austria say rules promoting separate collection and processing of biowaste are essential to kick-start a viable EU market for compost.

At a conference in Brussels on Wednesday 31st May the quartet set out their case for dedicated European biowaste legislation to officials from fellow EU states. The initiative is supported by waste management industry association Fead, composting body ECN, sustainable resource use association Assurre and the European environment bureau.

"We want to convince you that only compost from separately collected biowaste should be applied," Helge Wendenburg of the German environment ministry said. "We want useful and simple legislation, but that doesn't mean no regulation at all."

Germany and Austria have invested in high-quality source separated compost production and want producers in other countries have to meet similarly high standards in a future EU compost market. Spain and Portugal, meanwhile, see biowaste as a key source of material to combat soil degradation.

The commission prepared draft legislation on biowaste several years ago, but the proposals never emerged. The plans were shifted first into embryonic drafts of thematic strategies on recycling and soil protection, but have since been put on ice.

"We don't know what the best way forward is," commission official Timo Makela admitted at the conference on Wednesday. The commission still needed "further reflection" and would return to the issue "by 2010". Possible eventual policies were a complete ban on landfilling biowaste and mandatory composting of biowaste, Mr Makela said, though both options "raise several issues".

In the meantime, he said, the EU landfill directive, which requires a reduction in the proportion of biowaste sent to landfill, together with the EU's waste hierarchy and composting standards foreseen under the recycling thematic strategy, would all drive better biowaste management.

But conference speakers lined up to urge more action. Dutch MEP Hans Blokland, the European parliament rapporteur on the recycling strategy, said the compost standards would not be enough. The commission should respect a call in the sixth environmental action programme for separate biowaste legislation, he insisted.

Franz Mochty of the Austrian environment ministry claimed that setting compost standards on their own without a parallel source-separated biowaste collection obligation "even risks consumers losing confidence in the compost."

"Binding targets is something we really need to see for a critical mass of investment," Jane Gilbert of ECN said. "Biowaste is far too valuable to be lost through disposal or thermal treatment [incineration]. Only separate collection is the sustainable way of the future."

Dr. Munoo Prasad, Head of the Cré Technical Committee attended this conference.

Article Source: ENDS Europe DAILY