Commissioner Bjerregaard focuses on recycling waste
The issue of waste generates considerable political interest mainly because the quantity of it has continued to grow in recent years, European Commissioner for the Environment Ritt Bjerregaard told the first meeting of the Recycling Forum in Brussels last week (26 January). "In 1990, the total amount of municipal waste in Europe amounted to 81 million tons. In 1995, this amount had risen to 104 million tons," she said, explaining that some 65% of total waste went to landfill. "The new Directive on landfill waste, which I expect to be adopted this year, has two main purposes," she said. "One is to ensure environmentally safe landfilling of waste; and the other is to prevent the landfilling of waste. This prevention will lead to increased recycling." Recycling in the form of material recovery is therefore a key priority in the Community waste strategy, said Commissioner Bjerregaard. "Disposal of high-quality material will have to be history and we will have to reduce the use of non-renewable resources and prevent the generation of waste," she said. But it was most important in the long term to put the focus on developing cleaner, recyclable products, she said. "Clean products of the future should not contain hazardous substances. We must aim to reduce the generation of hazardous waste, by limiting or banning certain heavy metals and other dangerous substances in both processes and products," declared Commissioner Bjerregaard.