Introducing a functional circular economy is a must for the EU. With a balanced approach it can bring considerable advantages for citizens, businesses and the environment, making economies more competitive and sustainable. That was the main message of Domenico Gambacorta (EPP/IT) who presented his working document on the "Legislative proposals amending waste directives" to the CoR's ENVE commission and to stakeholders for consultations this week.
President of Avellino province argued "We need to prevent creating more waste, we need to increase recycling, re-use, recovery and pay more attention to the product design. I am convinced that the circular economy should be ambitious but also realistic. We cannot have targets that are too high with only a few able to implement them".
Estimates at present provide that the circular economy could within 15 years create up to 2 million new jobs, boost European GDP by almost 1% and increase the EU's productivity by 30%. Local and regional authorities will play a key role as they are in many cases responsible for promotion of waste prevention and sustainable consumption by green public procurement.
Gambacorta believes all actors involved in the context of circular economy should be granted better access to EU funds for related projects; "we need to cut unnecessary red tape and administrative burden, and we need to create a well-functioning market for recycled materials" underlined the rapporteur.
European associations, organisations and regional networks working in the waste policy sector attended the public consultation on 23 February. They raised a few thorny issues and challenges to be addressed, including the necessity for waste prevention targets, problematic definition of municipal waste, wide differences between the Member States in waste management practices, high landfilling target in view of hazardous materials and energy from waste strategies.
The opinion is scheduled for adoption at ENVE commission on 21 April 2016 and for CoR's plenary session vote in June 2016.