European Aluminium welcomes new waste directives of the EU Circular Economy Package

After the Council of Ministers has voted for the amended Waste Directives of the Package, European Aluminium has said that Europe now has the proper framework to make the Circular Economy work in the true sense.  The 28 EU Member States would now start delivering on reducing landfill of household waste to maximum 10% by 2035, promoting the use of reusable and recyclable materials.

European Aluminium believes that aluminium is already contributing positively towards the European circular economy with impressive aluminium recycling rates of over 90% in transport and building and over 60% in packaging sector. But the association feels the Member States need to improve on the existing packaging, collection and sorting infrastructure in order to meet the new ambitious recycling targets.

Commenting on the amendments, Director General of  European Aluminium Gerd Götz said: “Europe should promote the use of innovative sorting and separation technologies and make funding and other financial incentives available to all materials, not only to plastics. This would improve the uptake of used materials in Europe and reduce scrap leakage to third countries, certainly if waste exporters have to prove that the recycling is performed under the same environmental, health and safety conditions as in Europe. The latter should be addressed in the upcoming revision of the EU Waste Shipment Regulation”.

European Aluminium has also urged the EU Commission to propose a recycling target for construction and demolition waste before 2024 and also for harmonized reporting of national recycling statistics.