International Review of Waste Management Policy - Department of ...

34.0 Minimum Recycling Standards (Household
Waste) - International
34.1 Outline of Policy
A number of countries currently employ a minimum recycling standards policy for
householders, commerce and industry, and construction and demolition wastes. This
section presents those minimum standards for the household waste stream.
Minimum household waste recycling policies require the separate collection of a
number of waste materials either at the kerbside or via civic amenity sites, with the
key goals of diverting waste away from landfill and increasing material recovery.
Within the EU, the implementation of such recycling standards falls under Article 3 of
Directive 2006/12/EC, which specifies that Member States shall take the appropriate
measures for the recovery of waste via recycling, re-use and reclamation. In Asia,
countries such as Taiwan and South Korea have also implemented minimum
recycling standards, driven by a lack of space in these countries and the need to
move away from reliance on landfill.
Within the EU, there are current proposed revisions to the Waste Framework
Directive. 636 Regarding recycling, Member States will be required to take necessary
measures to reach 50 % re-use and recycling of waste materials such as paper,
metal, plastic and glass from households and similar waste streams by 2020. The
revisions recommend that
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“Member States shall set up separate collection of waste where technically,
environmentally and economically practicable and appropriate to meet the
necessary quality standards for the relevant recycling sectors. By 2015
separate collection shall be set up for at least paper, metal, plastic and glass.”
Hence the proposed revision to the framework will, in effect, require that an obligation
be placed on the municipality to provide separate collections of recyclable materials.
In addition to the main Waste Framework Directive, the use of minimum recycling
standards is also designed to meet the targets stipulated in a number of more
specific EU Directives, namely the Landfill Directive, the Packaging Directive (Section
13.0), the Batteries and Accumulators Directive (Section 25.0), the WEEE Directive
(Section 20.0) and the ELV Directive (Section 23.0).
34.2 Where Has the Policy Been Applied and Why?
The European countries that use a minimum recycling standard for the household
waste stream include Austria, Belgium (particularly Flanders and Wallonia), the Czech
636 ACR+ and IBGE (2008) Focus on EU Waste Legislation, Agreement Reached on a New Framework
Directive, Journal for Sustainable Waste Management Warmer Bulletin 115, 4-5.
International Review of Waste Policy: Annexes