The new Directive 2008/98/EC of the European Parliament and the Council on waste management has been published in the Official Journal of the European Union, on November, 24th. This Directive will repeal and replace certain other Directives about waste handling in the Community.

The Sixth Community Environment Action Programme, launched in 2002, called for the development or revision of the legislation on waste, including a clarification of the distinction between waste and non-waste, and for the development of measures regarding waste prevention and management, including the setting of targets. Within this framework, Directive 2006/12/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of April, 5th, 2006 on waste, already established the legislative framework for the handling of waste in the Community.

Now, in order to move forward in this process to build up a waste policy, this new Directive  2008/98/EC should help to move the EU closer to a ‘recycling society’, seeking to avoid waste generation and to use waste as a resource. This text embodies the changes introduced by the European Parliament in second reading vote in June, 2008.

This Directive, therefore, lays down measures to protect the environment and human health by preventing or reducing the adverse impacts of the generation and management of waste and by reducing overall impacts of resource use and improving the efficiency of such use. This new Directive will clarify and rationalise EU legislation on waste and will replace from December, 12th, 2008, the three Directive now in force: Directive establishing the framework for the handling of waste in the Community, Directive on hazardous waste and Directive on the disposal of waste oils.

According to this Directive, the following waste hierarchy will apply as a priority order in waste prevention and management legislation and policy:

• Prevention
• Preparing for re-use
• Recycling
• Other recovery (e.g. energy recovery)
• Disposal

Member States will take measures to encourage the options that deliver the best overall environmental outcome. This may require specific waste streams departing from the hierarchy where this is justified by life-cycle thinking on the overall impacts of the generation and management of such waste.

The first objective of any waste policy should be to minimise the negative effects of the generation and management of waste on human health and the environment. Waste policy should also aim at reducing the use of resources, and favour the practical application of the waste hierarchy.

Therefore, in order to comply with the objectives of this Directive, Member States will take the
necessary measures designed to achieve the following targets:

• By 2020, the preparing for re-use and the recycling of waste materials such as at least paper, metal, plastic and glass from households and possibly from other origins as far as these waste streams are similar to waste from households, shall be increased to a minimum of overall 50 % by weight.
• By 2020, the preparing for re-use, recycling and other material recovery, including backfilling operations using waste to substitute other materials, of non-hazardous construction and demolition waste excluding naturally occurring material defined in category 17 05 04 in the list of waste shall be increased to a minimum of 70 % by weight.

By December, 31st, 2014 at the latest, the Commission will examine those measures and the targets.

Waste producer responsibilty

Member States will also take the necessary measures to ensure that waste management is carried out without endangering human health or harming the environment. The polluter-pays principle is a guiding principle at European and international levels, and therefore, the waste producer and the waste holder should manage the waste in a way that guarantees a high level of protection of the environment and human health.

The introduction of extended producer responsibility in this Directive is one of the means to support the design and production of goods which take into full account and facilitate the efficient use of resources during their whole life-cycle including their repair, re-use, disassembly and recycling without compromising the free circulation of goods on the internal market.

Member States will take appropriate measures, in cooperation with other Member States where this is necessary or advisable, to establish an integrated and adequate network of waste disposal installations and of installations for the recovery of mixed municipal waste collected from private households, including where such collection also covers such waste from other producers, taking into account best available techniques.

Member States will ensure that their competent authorities establish, one or more waste management plans, which will set out an analysis of the current waste management situation in the geographical entity concerned, as well as the measures to be taken to improve environmentally sound preparing for re-use, recycling, recovery and disposal of waste and an evaluation of how the plan will support the implementation of the objectives and provisions of this Directive.

Furthermore, Member States will establish waste prevention programmes not later than December, 12th, 2013. Such programmes will be integrated either into the previous waste management plans or into other environmental policy programmes, as appropriate, or will  function as separate programmes. If any such programme is integrated into the waste management plan or into other
programmes, the waste prevention measures shall be clearly identified.

This Directive will enter into force on December, 12th, 2008.