Environment

The European Parliament and Council of Ministers have approved changes to the Waste Framework Directive (WFD) put forward by MEPs on Monday.

The WFD is an overarching umbrella law that will cover all aspects of waste policy, including legislation on packaging and packaging waste.

The directive going forward later this month to the European Parliament for adoption sets the recycling target for household waste at 50% by 2020.

However, the recycling target originally put forward by the Council was set at 45%.

The original draft of the directive did not include recycling targets.

Earlier this week Conservative MEP and European Parliament rapporteur Caroline Jackson had raised concerns about the ability of some member states, outside of the UK, to meet the targets.

She said that from her discussions with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Local Government Association (LGA), the targets were "achievable in the UK".

"We do have 12 years to achieve them," she added.

Figures from Defra stated that the household recycling and composting rate in England rose to 31% in 2006/7 from 27% in 2005/6.

The WFD package will be put before the European Parliament on 18 June, and if the vote goes through it will then go to the Council for final approval.