Piotr Barczak, Waste Policy Officer at the European Environmental Bureau (EEB), said: “The European Parliament has sent a clear message to EU environment ministers: any attempt to water down this level of ambition would compromise efforts to transition to a stronger and resource-efficient economy for the European people.”
While praising efforts to enhance reuse and recycling operations, the EEB regrets that binding reduction targets for food waste and marine litter are still missing, and that time derogations for recycling targets are granted to underperforming member states.
On food waste, Piotr Barczak said: “Around 88 million tonnes of food are wasted each year in the EU – enough to feed the 55 million Europeans living in food poverty more than nine times over. This is one of Europe’s biggest environmental and humanitarian crises, and it will only get worse if policy makers don’t come up with a legally binding framework to prevent this.”
