Steps towards greening in the EU
it is interesting to note such systems exist and work well. Austria is one of the countries having introduced producer responsibility schemes that cover all municipality/waste collection authority costs for collection and recycling. These apply to the four waste streams covered by the recycling directives. 437 Landfill bans are also used in these countries. In Germany and the Flanders region in Belgium, landfilling of bio-waste is banned. Germany bans municipal waste that is unsorted, separately collected or residual/untreated and having a total organic content (TOC) of <3%. German analysis has shown that illegal dumping of untreated municipal waste was not as serious a problem as anticipated, helped to fund intelligent municipal waste management and prevention activities, thereby contributing to increasing recycling rates and a moderate decrease in waste generation. 438 In Flanders, composting of bio-waste is very developed, with 34% of inhabitants doing home composting. Training sessions are regularly provided to inhabitants to ensure appropriate composting. Austria has a landfill ban for any waste having a TOC <5% (with some exceptions for mechanically-biologically extensively treated wastes) since 1997 for new landfills, and since 2004 for old landfills. 439 Sweden has a landfill ban on separately collected combustible waste materials. The Netherlands bans waste that is separately collected. Other activities promoting behavioural change are supported, through tools, surveys and studies, information and advice (Walloon region); reuse centres (Flanders region). In Luxembourg, the “SuperDresckKëscht” (SDK) programme organises awareness campaigns, provides public assistance and advice, and awards quality labels, thereby bringing significant progress and acting as a driver for waste recycling. 440 Austria’s Waste Prevention Vienna programme “Naturally less waste”, running since 1998, is one of Europe’s most famous examples of a behavioural change campaign. Various programme initiatives target efficient production, as well as efficient public and private consumption. These initiatives have already put in place several good waste management practices like: the establishment of the repair-network Vienna, the promotion of the use of tap-water instead of bottled water, the distribution of cloth shopping bags and the use of reusable drinking cups for public events. 441
4.2 Medium-performing or transitional countries This group is made up of the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Slovenia and the UK. These countries are typically characterised by mid-level recycling, around 25-30%, and landfilling between 35-50%. As only three of them more recently joined the EU, important changes have been made to pre-EU waste management practices but it still remains to be seen how a recycling society is to be supported by political, economic and infrastructural frameworks. More than half of them, however, are EU15 countries, with EU membership spanning from 18 years (Finland) and 40 years (Ireland and the UK), to over 60 years (founding nations, France and Italy). These transitions extend beyond generations, therefore, and it is evident that more political effort is needed to ‘complete’ the transition to a resource efficient recycling society, meeting EU legislative targets on the way. For many of these countries, a focus is needed on setting up the appropriate political, economic and infrastructure framework to avoid diverting waste from landfill to incineration instead of to recycling. The UK is one of the countries identified, the only not in the ‘high performing’ country group, that already has over-capacity in incineration. The use of economic instruments plays a key role in helping to fund such infrastructure creation and development, while also effecting behavioural change to less wasteful practices.
July 2013 I 55