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Competitiveness of the recycling industries
The Commission lists the major difficulties encountered by recycling businesses in achieving or maintaining viability, and proposes a package of measures capable of solving these problems.
ACT
Communication from the Commission of 22 July 1998: The competitiveness of the recycling industries [COM(98) 463 final - Not published in the Official Journal].
SUMMARY
The Communication constitutes a partial response to the Council's invitation, formulated in its Resolution of 24 February 1997 on a Community strategy for waste management [Official Journal C 76, 11 July 1997], to explore various measures which could contribute to the better management of waste in the Community.
The Commission states that the recycling industries are confronted with insufficient demand, precarious market structures which are not very competitive and excessive competition from "virgin" (non-recycled) raw materials. If the markets operate correctly, the recycling sector could become profitable in an increasing number of cases and generate significant energy savings as well as a large number of new jobs.
Some of the problems connected with viability can be traced to the structure of the recycling industry, which is characterised by the co-existence of two major types of source of waste (industry and household consumption), with households generating more heterogeneous and lower quality waste than that which industry produces. This situation has favoured a waste collection structure characterised by the vertical integration of the various activities involved up to the sorting level. Increasing the scale of operation and greater specialisation could give rise to considerable savings in both branches.
Despite the disparity between the different branches of recycling, it is possible to identify a number of factors of competitiveness common to both branches. These concern production, the supply of and demand for recycled products and the ways in which the markets operate.
The factors operating at the production and supply level identified by the Commission are:
At the demand level, the competitiveness of recycling activities is hampered by:
Finally, the Commission identifies the following factors affecting the functioning of the markets and the business framework:
On the basis of this analysis, the Commission identifies four types of action which could make recycling companies more competitive and boost activities in this sector: standardisation, the development of the market and of its transparency, measures in favour of innovation and regulatory measures.
Among actions in the area of standardisation, the Commission proposes:
The following actions could help to develop the market and make it more transparent:
Innovation can be stimulated by the following measures:
The Commission advocates the following regulatory measures:
The Commission plans to organise a Forum on Recycling, which will bring together all interested parties in the public and private sector, to examine various ways of making the competitiveness of the recycling industry more competitive. The Forum will also evaluate whether it is useful and feasible to set up a European Recycling Centre.
RELATED ACTS
Communication from the Commission of 21 December 2005: "Taking sustainable use of resources forward: A Thematic Strategy on the prevention and recycling of waste" [COM(2005) 666 final - Not published in the Official Journal]. This strategy sets out guidelines and describes measures aimed at reducing the pressure on the environment caused by waste production and management. The main thrust of the strategy is on amending the legislation to improve implementation, and on preventing waste and promoting effective recycling.
Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 December 2005 on waste [COM(2005) 667 - Not published in the Official Journal].
The aim of this proposal is to revise the framework Directive on waste. The proposal incorporates the content of the Hazardous Waste Directive and the Waste Oil Directive into the new Directive. It also introduces an environmental objective, clarifies certain concepts (recovery, disposal of waste), and sets out procedures for establishing minimum quality standards. This proposal for a Directive requires Member States to draw up national waste prevention programmes.
Last updated: 16.08.2006