EU generates 2bn tonnes of waste annually

Countries in the EU generate 2.5 billion tonnes of waste every year. A new report from the European Environment Agency (EEA) analysed if Member States are focused on developing waste […]

Countries in the EU generate 2.5 billion tonnes of waste every year.

A new report from the European Environment Agency (EEA) analysed if Member States are focused on developing waste prevention programmes.

The ‘Waste prevention in Europe – the status in 2014’ report reviews 27 national and regional schemes adopted by the end of last year.

It states waste prevention programmes show great variety in coverage, targets, monitoring systems and policies.

It highlights 39% of them focus on waste production and distribution, 40% are related to consumption and 21% work on the general framework conditions of waste generation.

The report adds all of them cover sectors such as households and all, except one, public services. Only a few programmes include the agriculture, mining and raw materials sectors.

A total of 17 programmes include quantitative targets for total waste generated and more specific targets for particular sectors or waste types with different baseline and years.

Around 24 show what progresses should be made to achieve targets and only 10 include monitoring systems.

On policy, 63% of the programmes include information and raise awareness. Economic and regulatory instruments account for 16% and 14% respectively.

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