Europe’s untapped biowaste potential

Biowaste is Europe’s largest municipal waste stream, yet it remains absent from the EU’s 2018 Bioeconomy Strategy thus leaving much of its potential untapped. Through proper separate collection and treatment, Europe can transform biowaste into renewable energy, circular fertilisers, and valuable soil improvers — while reducing landfilling, creating green local jobs and cutting dependence on imported fossil-based fertilisers.

The three associations urge the European Commission and Member States to scale up investments, remove regulatory barriers and mobilise local action to turn biowaste into a true catalyst for Europe’s circular bioeconomy.

The joint paper sets out four key recommendations:

1. Direct all separately collected biowaste towards the production of fertilising products and biogas.
2. Enable the market for circular organic fertilisers products and their associated benefits.
3. Facilitate the market for biogas and biomethane derived from biowaste and their associated benefits.
4. Mobilise European funds and investments for the production of biogas and organic fertilising products from municipal and non-municipal biowaste.

Read the paper