Deadline looms for Europe’s waste collection overhaul

The European Union has published new targets regarding an overhaul of waste recycling, calling for at least 65% recycling of municipal waste from member states by 2035. In addition, EU members will have until December 2023 to establish separate collections for biowaste.

Having been published as part of the EU’s Official Journal, the targets will be binding to EU states from 4 July 2018, from which a two-year period begins wherein federal Governments must lawfully adopt the changes.

David Newman, President of the World Biogas Association (WBA) comments: “there are huge environmental, economic, and human-health benefits to separately collecting inedible food waste and recycling it into valuable resources using biogas technologies – our latest report suggests that doing this on a global scale would have the same impact in terms of CO2 emissions reduction as taking all cars in the EU off the road.”

The WBA will soon be holding the UK launch of its timely report, Global Food Waste Management: An Implementation Guide For Cities, taking place at the UK AD & World Biogas Expo 2018, 11 – 12 July.

In partnership with C40 Cities Food, Water & Waste Programme, the report will offer advice on how to implement meaningful policy that can improve waste collection.

“We fully expect the UK to implement these targets as an existing member of the EU. The Anaerobic Digestion & Bioresources Association (ADBA) has campaigned long and hard for separate food waste collections to be brought in across England to emulate the successful examples set by Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland in separating and recycling inedible food waste through AD, so this is a huge moment for the circular economy in the UK,” adds Charlotte Morton, Chief Executive of ADBA.