Waste management: landfill

The Commission presented a report on the implementation of EU waste legislation for the period 2010-2012.

Of the 27 Member States under the obligation to report, most have submitted replies to the implementation questionnaires for the directives this report covers, namely:

·         Directive 2008/98/EC on waste,

·         Directive 86/278/EEC on sewage sludge,

·         Directive 1999/31/EC on landfilling,

·         Directive 94/62/EC on packaging and packaging waste,

·         Directive 2002/96/EC on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE),

·         Directive 2006/66/EC on batteries and accumulators.

Quality of reporting: not all Member States have fulfilled the obligation laid down in the Directives to report to the Commission on their implementation every three years. Some did not submit replies to the Implementation Questionnaire 2010-2012.

The Commission noted the highly variable nature of the quality and accuracy of the reports and information provided. Answers frequently only referred to national legislation or to answers given in previous reporting periods, without providing further information on the implementation of the directives on the ground, even when this was explicitly requested.

The Commission considered that the triennial implementation reports prepared by the Member States have not proven effective for verifying compliance with the directives, their implementation and their impact.

Directive 1999/31/EC on landfill: this Directive has been in force for a long time and there has been little change since the previous reporting period.

The main findings are as follows:

·         the landfill of municipal waste in the EU-27 has decreased from a total of 96.055 million tonnes/193 kg per capita in 2009 to a total of 78.036 million tonnes/152 kg per capita in 2012;

·         the average rate of landfilling of the total waste generated decreased to 32% in 2012. Some Member States reported landfilling rates for municipal waste below 5% in 2012;

·         in a number of Member States, however, landfilling is still the predominant municipal waste treatment operation, with landfilling rates of more than 80% of the total waste generated. These Member States have a lot to do to reduce landfilling;

·         most Member States reported a year-by-year reduction of landfilling of biodegradable municipal and other biodegradable waste. They took measures to provide for the collection, treatment and use of landfill gas and to minimise nuisances and hazards. They also transposed the requirement for waste acceptance criteria into their national legislation;

·         15 Member States reported that all of their hazardous waste landfills meet the requirements of the directive and seven reported that they still had non-compliant landfills;

·         the number of non-compliant landfills in operation for all waste streams (hazardous, non-hazardous and inert) remains a matter of concern in certain Member States.

General conclusions: the Commission considered that Member States should make greater efforts to improve the quality, reliability and comparability of data for assessing waste management performance. They could do this by benchmarking reporting methodologies and introducing a data quality check report, so that when reporting on the achievement of the targets set out in the legislation, Member States use the most recent and harmonised methodology.

The Commission recalled that in the recent review of waste policy and legislation, it proposed to repeal provisions obliging Member States to produce triennial implementation reports and to base compliance monitoring exclusively on quality statistical data that Member States must provide the Commission with annually.