8 September, Brussels – Commissioner Poto?nik has vigorously defended the Commission’s Circular Economy Package and newly proposed recycling targets, in an exchange of views with the Parliament’s Environment Committee, saying that together they have high potential to encourage economic growth and development.
The new targets propose that a landfill ban for all recyclable materials be in place by 2025, and that 70% of all municipal waste is recycled by 2030. Responding to criticisms that the targets would be an economic burden for some states, Poto?nik told the Committee that poorer states, “should consider them as an economic opportunity … to develop jobs on a local level that cannot be de-localised.”
Poto?nik warned that Europe cannot remain locked into a linear economy, where resources are extracted, used and disposed. Instead, the Commission is aiming to move Europe towards a more Circular Economy. Alongside the recycling targets, the Commission is also pushing to establish a resource efficiency target – measured by comparing GDP with raw material consumption – under the Europe 2020 Strategy.
Click here to read the Communication on the Circular Economy.