Thank you to the European Packaging Waste Forum for inviting me here today to take part in this important conference. Like you, I have a great interest in waste policies which are essential to protecting human health and the environment.
I live in the shadow of Nantgwyddon landfill site, a waste tip which has polluted and created health problems in my local community for several years - and which was initially built and supported by European funding. I was one of the people involved in the massive community action which led to the closure of the tip so I know as well as anyone what a huge issue this is. And one in which Europe can intervene directly - in fact, when I was a councillor I took a petition to the European Parliament in 1998 on the breach of the Waste Framework Directive at Nantgwyddon and succeeded in getting the Commission to take up the matter with the UK government and threaten infringement proceedings. The council closed the site in 2002 but I believe that my experience highlights one of the major problems we have with waste policy - implementation and enforcement.
In our consumer society we are producing more and more rubbish. Each year, we throw away 1.3 billion tonnes of waste in the EU - that's an average 3.5 tons of solid waste for each one of us. 40 million tonnes of this waste is hazardous. Waste is expected to increase by another 45& by 2020. If we can't ensure that waste is dealt with safely then we will continue to cause serious damage.
We are failing to meet many targets. The Fifth European Action Programme in 1992 sought to stabilise the generation of municipal waste at 300kg per person but that has now risen to 500kg.
These figures show the scale of the problem we face to dispose of waste safely and without harming health or the environment. The target is to reduce the quantity of waste for final disposal by 20% in 2010 and by 50% in 2050. To address this, we already have laws on, for example, batteries, packaging waste, landfill, end of life vehicles - recycling cars - and waste electronic equipment such as computers.
The Thematic Strategy - an overall policy framework - on the prevention and recycling of waste has four building blocks:
-ways of promoting waste prevention, such as prevention targets, exchange of information, incentive schemes for consumers and waste prevention plans in companies
-ways of promoting waste recycling such as landfill taxes, use of best technology, pay as you throw schemes and incentive systems
-measures to harmonise waste recycling standards so that there is a level playing field
-other measures to promote waste prevention and recycling like promoting research and development and increasing the demand for recycled materials
The strategy sets out our clear waste management hierarchy: prevention, re-use, recycling, recovery and disposal.
The Waste Framework Directive was adopted in June 2008 to ensure that hierarchy was implemented in practice in the member states. I followed this report for my group in the European Parliament (Greens/EFA). I fought to get stronger proposals: legally binding waste reduction and recycling targets, for example. Because we still do not prioritise reduction, reuse and recycling enough. We like to repeat the waste hierarchy, which sounds good but we all know that things aren't quite that simple.
I know that there are major changes taking place in the packaging industry - I know you have been discussing many here in the past two days. 'Light weighting' no longer just applies to electronic goods like telephones and televisions but also to plastic bags and packaging. I know that trials for glass and plastic bottles as well as for a pull tab lid for food tins have been conducted. Supermarkets in the UK have also signed an agreement to try and reduce the amount of packaging waste they produce by 2010.
All of this has come about largely in response to customer demand and this is very encouraging. I get letters and emails from constituents complaining about the volume of packaging on goods and I know many are campaigning hard to reduce packaging waste. Consumer led - people-led - change will bring about real change because it means people are changing their lifestyles - or trying to - ahead of legislation being implemented.
So it's not all bad - but it's pretty bad. The European Commission itself says that implementation and enforcement of the Waste Framework Directive, the Landfill Directive and the Waste Shipment Directive are particularly poor. There is a lot of shipment of illegal waste, for example. The Commission's recent inspection showed as many as 19% of waste transport shipments were illegal - and those inspections were carried out in 22 member states and involved over 10,000 inspections. Many were illegal shipments from the EU to Africa and Asia but that is just one aspect of the problem. We know there is illegal dumping in landfill sites too. And in Wales, that I represent, there have been serious problems with the incineration of chemfuel in cement kilns. So the problem is huge.
I mentioned at the start that I was involved in a petition to the European Parliament. Since my election to the European Parliament in 1999, I have been involved in countless petitions on waste issues. Many, many communities are living every day with the consequences of laws which have not been implemented as well as those laws which have been broken. Petitions are a very effective way of getting action taken but this can take several years. In the meantime people continue to suffer the problems.
This is why I very much support the idea of a Waste Implementation Agency which was a result of a Commission's stakeholder consultation. I welcome the Commission's recognition of and determination to resolve these issues. We have to discuss this further but I feel that an agency could be the right way forward.
The European Parliament's Environment Committee called in October 2008 for an EU environmental inspection force and the agency would fulfil that function. A cost-benefit analysis will be carried out this year with further recommendations presented in 2011. The work of the agency would be to review enforcement systems in Member States and coordinate controls and inspection activities. There would be more direct inspection of sites in cases of non-compliance, in co-operation with the member state authorities. Training for member state officials and support for local enforcement action is also being looked at.
The estimated cost is 16 million Euros a year. In the current climate, is it worth it? Well, full implementation of existing EU waste legislation would reduce CO2 emissions by almost 200 million tonnes annually. That's an annual saving of 2.5 billion Euros, paying for the agency 150 times over, and equivalent to taking 47 million cars off the road a year. 24 million tonnes of key recyclable material are being sent to landfill or for incineration a year. The cost of doing nothing about this problem, both financially and environmentally, are much higher.
As I represent Wales, I can't let the opportunity go by without referring to measures on waste announcedd last month by our government in Wales. Wales has set a target to become a zero waste country by 2050. To achieve this, the measures enable the government to ban certain wastes from landfill, set recycling targets for local authorities and impose financial penalties on those that fail to meet these targets. It will also mean a mandatory charge for carrier bags in Wales, which will come into force in spring 2011. Yesterday a further measure was adopted to look at where the waste collected for recycling by local authorities actually goes and what happens to it - this is a major issue for consumers. Wales has actually done well in meeting waste recycling targets of 40% and in reducing overall waste volume. Over half of all households now have a food waste collection service and that is expected to reach 100% by 2012.
To further encourage consumers and authorities at all levels - and local authorities play a key part in this and their role cannot be overlooked - we have to ensure that the laws we pass here in Brussels can actually make a difference to people's lives, an issue that is central to the whole debate on the role and effectiveness of the EU itself. At the end of the day, it is about health, it is about the environment and protecting the future of this planet. I know from my work on waste issues as an MEP that we all share these aims and that we can work together to achieve them.
Diwedd/Ends.
