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LIFE ENVIRONMENT | LIFE and the circular economy Circular Economy Package and waste The Circular Economy Package proposes revised legislation concerning waste management. Key elements include: • A common EU target for recycling 65% of municipal waste by 2030; • A common EU target for recycling 75% of packaging waste by 2030; • A binding target to reduce landfill to a maximum of 10% of municipal waste by 2030; • A ban on landfilling of separately-collected waste; • Promotion of economic instruments to discourage landfilling; • Improved definitions and harmonised calculation methods for recycling rates; • Measures to stimulate industrial symbiosis, turning one industry’s byproduct into another industry’s raw material; and • Economic incentives for producers to put greener products on the market and support recycling schemes. recovery or disposal by landfilling. This principle encourages options that deliver the best environmental outcomes. The WFD was revised in 2015 (COM(2015) 595), with more emphasis on waste prevention and reuse, and increased restrictions on landfilling. Waste management plays a central role in determining how the EU waste hierarchy is put into practice, by helping to divert materials from disposal into material loops in order to create a circular economy. Methods for collecting and managing waste can either lead to high rates of recycling and to valuable materials finding their way back into the economy, or to an inefficient system where most potentially recyclable waste ends up in landfill or is incinerated. The latter case leads to harmful environmental impacts and significant economic losses. The Action Plan for the Circular Economy (COM(2015) 614 final), which forms part of the EU Circular Economy Package, sets out measures to improve waste management aimed at stimulating the transition towards a circular economy (see box opposite). Waste prevention and recycling In 2016, only around 40% of the total waste produced by EU households was recycled. This average masks wide variation between Member States and regions, with rates as high as 80% in some areas, and lower than 5% in others. Recent and proposed EU legislation is therefore aimed at facilitating a long-term vision for increasing recycling and reducing the landfilling of municipal waste, while taking account of differences between Member States. There is a need to increase recycling rates for all types of waste streams, in order to reach the targets set out in the Circular Economy Package (see box). We have already highlighted LIFE’s efforts to prevent the generation of domestic and commercial waste and to promote reuse and repair (see consumption chapter, pp. 30-39). Some of the most successful prevention projects - such as CREWS- OD (see box) - have taken an integrated approach where they jointly address prevention and recycling. Tailored waste collection The CREWSOD project (LIFE10 ENV/IT/000314) addressed two levels of the EU waste hierarchy: prevention and recycling. It worked with the public to minimise the amount of waste produced by offering tailored waste collection services - Service on Demand (SOD) and Self-Service on Demand (SSOD). These flexible tariff systems enabled households to pay only for the weight and volume of waste they generate, which proved an effective incentive to reduce waste. The project actions were implemented in seven Italian municipalities, where they increased amounts of separated waste suitable for recycling, and reduced waste disposal by landfill or incineration. The project showed it is possible to reduce landfill and operating costs for local authorities, with subsequent savings for users (estimated at 22% on average). By introducing traceability of waste, the system also reduced instances of illegal dumping. 48
LIFE ENVIRONMENT | LIFE and the circular economy Recycling airbags Airbags are made from composite materials that are difficult to recycle. As a result, 9 000 tonnes/yr of waste generated by the European airbag industry currently goes to landfill. The Move4earth project (LIFE11 ENV/ FR/000748) was set up to take advantage of growing demand for the polyamides used in airbags. It is demonstrating a novel process for recycling and reusing polyamides from siliconecoated airbag cushions, to deliver a new high-grade material (PA 6.6) with comparable properties to nylon (polyamides in the marketplace). “The purpose of our innovation is to find a technical solution to separate the two different components of the fabric: the main fibre component and the coating,” says project director Richard Bourdon. “The aim is to bring something new to the industry by being able to achieve such a separation.” The technology combines mechanical and chemical processes, including fine grinding followed by a chemical activation stage. “Chemical activation is the use of a chemical to cut the adhesive between the fibres and the coating, so that they can be completely separated by centrifugal washing. This is very new, and there is a patent registered for the process,” he says. A pilot plant has been built at project beneficiary Solvay’s facility in Gorzów (Poland), which will be operational by late 2016. According to Mr Bourdon, after demonstrating the process with airbags, Solvay plans to apply it to other post-consumer textile wastes (e.g. polyamide/elastane fabrics). Economic viability will depend on several factors. “Post-industrial waste already has a commercial value and you pay more, but post-consumer waste represents an added-value to industry or society,” explains Mr Bourdon. “In general, beside this aspect, you have several key drivers. The first one is capital investment. Move4earth would not have been possible without LIFE funding because it is the first pilot project and the technology is not yet optimised, and it would have to be much bigger to be commercially viable. Then a second very important driver is the cost to collect and prepare the waste before it can be recycled for such a process.” Major environmental benefits could result from the recycling of polyamides. Provisional data from Solvay’s experts (yet to be independently certified) suggest that for the production of one tonne of PA 6.6, the carbon footprint is reduced (26%), and less energy (47%) and water (69%) are consumed, due to the waste being diverted from incineration and landfill. PA 6.6 is an environmentally-friendly alternative to nylon made from virgin materials. “We are looking at all markets selling nylon compounds,” says Mr Bourdon, “The biggest one is the automotive market, then you have electrical and electronic devices, and many consumer goods, because nylon can be a good material with very high flame-retardant properties.” Waste management The impact of LIFE The LIFE pÒrogramme has funded around 100 projects addressing waste recycling for different waste streams, such as glass, plastic, packaging, textiles, construction and demolition waste (CDW), municipal solid waste (MSW) and organic waste. A number of recent projects have developed technologies that not only recycle but also upcycle (improving the properties of the recycled material), thus ensuring a high-quality end product. In combination with product design that facilitates recovery and separation, this will help increase the amount of recycled material used in production (closing material loops). Projects have developed technologies to produce new high-value products from a range of waste materials, including specialist textiles, wood and rubber, household plastics and hazardous waste. The Move4earth project has demonstrated a solution for separating composite materials, which is a particular challenge (see box). Another innovative LIFE project carried out the first European demonstration of the use of plastic polymer waste in asphalt mixes for roads. POLYMIX (LIFE10 ENV/ES/000516) designed and validated four asphalt mixes, incorporating polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS) and end-oflife tyres (ELT). These were used to construct sections of a demonstration stretch of heavily-used 49
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LIFE

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