An European Parliament committee has begun to push for a steep rise in recycling and reuse of plastics within the EU by urging green collection schemes to handle more electrical waste during pickups.
The move comes the parliament’s environment committee makes amendments to the EU’s waste electronic and electrical equipment (WEEE) directive. According to the amendments, EU member states will be required to collect at a minimum 85 per cent of WEEE generated in their country in time for 2016 targets.
The increase would be a large jump from the previous expectation of 65 per cent of WEEE collected by 2016. The committee added that the jump comes from a change in the way of calculating target requirements. The Commission now uses actual waste measurements for the EU, rather than estimating new waste based on new products being sent out by retailers.
According to the committee statement, targets are now based on real waste as older goods are likely to remain stored away in people’s homes rather than thrown out. Additionally, the committee has voted in favour of changing existing collection targets for 2012. MEPs concluded that volumes of electrical waste collected this year would set the standard, if larger than the current 4kg per capita goal already in place. The committee stated as well that member states should feel free to set higher targets internally.
Solar panels were exempted within the directive altogether in the most recent vote in the wake of the industry itself setting a goal of recycling voluntarily 85 per cent of its modules. In addition, the committee backed exempting vehicles, fixed industrial installations and military materials.
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