WASTE/RECYCLING
HIGHEST RECYCLING RATES IN AUSTRIA AND GERMANY – BUT UK AND IRELAND SHOW FASTEST INCREASE
A
ustria, Germany and Belgium recycled the largest proportion of municipal waste in Europe in 2010. Although some countries have rapidly
increased recycling rates, Europe is still wasting vast quantities of valuable resources by sending them to landfill, and many countries risk falling short of legally binding recycling targets.
Overall 35 % of municipal waste was recycled in Europe in 2010, a significant improvement on 23 % in 2001. But many countries will find it extremely difficult to meet EU-mandated targets to recycle 50% of household and similar waste by 2020. The information comes from a new report from the European Environment Agency (EEA) which looks at the management of municipal solid waste, mainly consisting of household waste, in 27 EU Member States, Croatia, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, and Turkey.
Although five countries have already achieved the target, others will need to make extraordinary efforts to achieve this before the deadline. For example; at present, Bulgaria and Romania seem to recycle small proportions of municipal waste, so in order to meet the target by 2020 they must increase recycling by more than 4 percentage points per year during this decade – which no country
managed to do between 2001 and 2010. The United Kingdom increased the share of municipal waste recycling from 12 to 39 % between 2001 and 2010, while Ireland raised recycling rates from 11 to 36% over the same period. Slovenia, Poland and Hungary have also dramatically improved recycling rates since joining the EU.
Recycling rates are highest in Austria, with 63 %, followed by Germany (62 %), Belgium (58 %), the Netherlands (51 %) and Switzerland (51 %). Alongside the main report, the EEA has also published individual country reports.
The EEA report is particularly relevant, given that municipal waste is primarily a public sector responsibility and the current economic situation in many EU Member States demands an added focus on how to achieve policy goals most cost- effectively.
The report supports European Commission efforts to help EU Member States improve their waste management performance.
OTHER FINDINGS • Europe is successfully moving up the ‘waste management hierarchy’, albeit more slowly than required by legislation. The amount of waste sent to landfill
has decreased since 2001, while Europe has increased the amount of waste incinerated, composted and recycled.
• Recycling can reduce greenhouse gases and save valuable resources. This is because recycled materials replace virgin materials. From a life-cycle perspective, changing municipal waste treatment between 2001 and 2010 has successfully cut greenhouse gas emissions from municipal waste by 56 %, or 38 million tonnes of CO2
-equivalent
in the EU, Norway and Switzerland.
• Preventing waste in the first place is the first priority of EU waste legislation. The municipal waste generated by each EU citizen fell by 3.6 % between 2001 and 2010. However, this may be due to the economic downturn – waste generation per capita was quite stable between 2001 and 2007. On 4 March 2013 Eurostat published 2011 municipal waste data, offering further options for analysis. Eurostat uses slightly different categories from the EEA and data are thus not directly comparable with EEA analysis.
http://www.eea.europa.eu
FLEXIBLE STORAGE CAPACITY FOR BULK MATERIALS
B.V., storage bays and retaining walls are build quickly but solid, without digging foundations. And thanks to the flexibility of this construction system, walls can be replaced or expanded at any time. Legioblock® is a heavy weight concrete building block, capable of providing infinite structural solutions. Thanks to the interlocking principle, Legioblocks® are easily stacked and placed without the need of any fixing
T 20
o create your ideal site layout and adjusting it to suit your needs at any time, can be as easy a playing with Lego®. With Legioblocks® from A. Jansen
material. This way, constructions can be build easily and rapidly, allowing complete freedom to expand or modify the construction at any time. The measurement of a standard Legioblock® is 160 x 80 x 80cm with a weight of approx. 2400 kg however there are a number of additional sizes to chose from.
Main applications of Legioblocks® are storage bays, retaining walls, partition walls, soundproof walls, fire resistant walls and industrial workspaces. For all companies that deal with bulk materials, it is the ideal solution to – temporarily or permanently – optimize
PUBLIC SECTOR SUSTAINABILITY • VOLUME 3 ISSUE 3
storage capacity. Legioblock® walls also have excellent sound-proofing and fire resistant properties.
www.ajansenbv.com
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