The waste hierarchy starts with prevention, yet most EU policies focus on recycling,
recovery and disposal rather than looking upstream where the potential for environmental and economic gains is the highest.
Among the study’s propositions, Zero Waste Europe calls for:
- Complementing the monitoring of waste generation with upstream indicators
about the benefits related to savings from non-extracted resources - Developing dedicated sectoral waste prevention indicators for the following
9 specific product groups:
- Food and beverages
- Large household appliances
- Small household appliances
- IT and telecommunications equipment
- Toys, leisure and sports equipment
- Electrical and electronic tools
- Textiles
- Motor vehicles
- Furniture and furnishing
For those 9 product groups, waste prevention has a substantial ecological, social
and economic relevance while showing high improvement potentials.
“A Circular Economy will require a substantial reduction in resources use and waste generation.Sectoral waste prevention indicators are the best way to set milestones to orient complementary policies in the years to come”
said Pierre Condamine, Waste Policy Officer at Zero Waste Europe.
