Environment DG publishes waste prevention and minimisation report on-line
The European Commission's Environment Directorate-General has recently published on-line its report on waste prevention and minimisation. According to the European Commission's Fifth Environmental Action Programme for the year 2000, management of waste generated within the Community is a key task of the 1990s. Says the Commission: 'a vital element of the Community strategy is achieving waste minimisation in terms of both volumes and environmental hazards/damages'. The Commission sees the prevention and minimisation of waste as desirable not only because it is a major source of pollution, but also because a large proportion of it is often reusable or recyclable material. The research described in the report, now available, aimed to: - Identify and analyse the measures taken by the various national actors to minimise the quantity and hazards of industrial waste; - Identify and analyse, in the municipal waste sector, the best practices of waste prevention; - Identify horizontal measures taken with the aim of eliminating hazardous substances from the waste stream; - Measure and analyse, on several concrete examples, the environmental and economic gains connected to the prevention of waste.