The exit strategy from Rome’s current garbage crisis involves re-routing thousands of tonnes of junk to Sweden and other EU countries, with a huge financial and environmental cost in terms of CO2 emissions.
Despite progress in recent years, local circular economy efforts in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia are still plagued by inefficient management, cheap landfilling and problematic reporting. EURACTIV's network reports.
To date, the Renewable Energy Directive has been a key obstacle to achieving waste policy objectives. If the EU is serious about the transition towards a circular economy, it is crucial that incentive schemes for renewables encourage separate collection and recycling, writes Janek Vahk.
The growing trend of burning waste for energy undermines Europe’s recycling efforts by diverting waste to incinerators instead of having it reused or recycled, thereby defeating the purpose of the Commission's well-meant directive on minimising waste.
The excess wind and solar electricity generated at times of oversupply could be used more systematically to produce synthetic gas, providing a convenient way of storing renewable energy that would otherwise be lost. The potential is huge, and can be used to heat homes during winter, argues Beate Raabe.
Municipal waste in Pilsen used to be landfilled. "It is better to use waste for heat and electricity generation," Radka Trylčová, a member of a regional council which is trying to make the waste-to-energy process policy, told EURACTIV Czech Republic.