Member states will be banned from landfilling recyclable materials from 2025, and must recycle 70 percent of municipal waste and 80 percent of packaging waste by 2030.
It is likely the recommendations will be included in the European Commission’s upcoming circular economy package, Lexology reported. The publication said that the decision raises the concern that: “In the electrical goods sector, how will businesses evaluate the new impetus to encourage the reuse of products with the clear commercial advantages of selling newer models?”
Karmenu Vella, Environment Commissioner, said a week before the vote that “we can’t be more ambitious by lowering our targets. We have to maintain those targets. We have to be more ambitious on outlook, results and delivery by member states, and we need to identify the member states that are not achieving those targets”.
The new targets were reportedly opposed by the UK, as a paper leaked in July indicated that the nation opposed the proposals. EU laws currently require all member states to recycle half of all household waste by the year 2020. Some councils in Europe are already recycling 70 percent of their waste.