European Environment Commissioner Karmenu Vella has said that recycled material will be introduced further into supply chains.
Speaking to MEPs on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee in the European Parliament, the Commissioner set out more detail on what will be included in the new circular economy proposals that will be introduced later this year.
This includes ensuring that more recycled material is used by manufacturers, and that market instruments may be introduced to enable this to happen.
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In his speech to MEPs, Karmenu Vella set out a vision of a circular economy where products are designed to enable recycling to be more efficient and cost effective, and that manufacturers will be encouraged to use recycled materials.
The Commissioner also said that new waste recycling targets would be proposed before the end of 2015.
He said: “We will present a new legislative proposal on waste targets. Rest assured, the new proposals will keep the EU’s vision on the waste hierarchy and increasing recycling targets…
“…But we will also close the circle. We will look at how products are created before they become waste…We will look at how recycled material is introduced into the supply chain.”
He added that “the more ambitious proposals” will make recycling more efficient by ensuring products are designed for recycling.
The Commissioner said that he will work with the European Parliament to develop both a roadmap on developing products that are designed with resource efficiency in mind, along with new waste targets, before the end of 2015.
He also stressed the importance of looking at industrial waste and how recycling of this can be improved, as it represents half of all waste in the EU.
