Source : Procurement Leaders
The European Union must do a better job of using and recycling packaging materials, according to MEPs voting in the Environment Committee this week.
Cutting waste landfilling and incineration and smart use of environmental taxation are among the committee’s suggestions to improve resource efficiency and boost the EU’s competitiveness.
"Europe is addicted to cheap resources and rising prices are the biggest threat to our industry. Instead of paying record prices for resources we should recycle and recover our valuable waste," said rapporteur Gerban-Jan Gerbrandy.
"Improving resource efficiency is a golden opportunity and we simply cannot afford to take twenty years for the transformation towards a sustainable economy. Competitive global markets and the spectacular rise of emerging economies do not give us this much time," added Gerbrandy, who will lead the Parliament delegation at the UN Rio+20 sustainable development summit in June.
The report calls for a gradual phase-out of landfill of waste and calls on the Commission to make proposals to that effect by the end of 2014. The committee notes the success of some Member States’ use of landfill taxation.
The Commission should also revise the 2020 recycling targets set in the Waste Framework Directive and ensure, by the end of the decade, that there is no incineration of waste that could be recycled or composted, according to MEPs.