Study support to waste target review : final report

As required by the Terms of Reference for the project, the work presented in this Section was undertaken prior to the publication of the revised legislative proposal in December 2015. The analysis presented, therefore, does not explicitly consider the exact phrasing of the new definition of municipal waste put forward by the Commission in the revised text for Directive 2008/98/EC. However, the details presented here provide a useful indication of how the quantity of municipal waste may vary under different definitions of the term. Eunomia et al's work on the revision of the waste targets outlined a number of issues associated with the current definition of municipal waste and explained why the current definition is ambiguous and leading to significant inconsistencies in Member State reporting. It was our view that underpinning any target, there should be a consistent means of measurement and verification. The potential for improving the reporting on any waste fraction ideally starts from a clear definition about what it is that should be reported upon. The current definition of municipal waste, which is intended to be used in reporting municipal waste data, is somewhat lengthy, and appears to have been extended over time rather than being streamlined. Notwithstanding attempts to clarify a definition, Member States appear to have continued to report on municipal waste arisings in a variety of ways, which makes cross comparison between countries more challenging.