Environment: Your views can help make Europe become a recycling society

The European Commission wants to know whether you think the recycling targets in EU waste legislation need reviewing, and how. The results of the consultation will be used to help develop potential new legislation to prevent waste and boost re-use and recycling, as part of a wider review of waste policies in 2014. Citizens, businesses, NGOs, public authorities and other interested parties are welcome to contribute their views until mid-September 2013.

Existing EU waste legislation sets clear targets for re-use and recycling of waste and for reducing landfill. By 2020, for example, 50 % of municipal/household waste and 70 % of construction and demolition waste should be recycled or re-used. Such targets have already driven major improvements, with several Member States demonstrating what can be done rapidly, at little cost and creating many jobs. But rising prices of raw materials have added an important economic imperative to improving waste management to the environmental one. Recent policy documents such as the Resource Efficiency Roadmap and the proposal for a 7th Environmental Action Programme have explained the economic and environmental benefits of developing a resource efficient and circular economy, and this would require:

See full Article: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-13-509_en.htm?locale=en