Environment

EU member states have committed to recycling half of all household waste by 2020 after the European Council accepted a series of amendments to the Waste Framework Directive.

The directive aims to encourage re-use and recycling of waste in a five-step hierarchy of waste management options, which includes prevention of waste, followed by the reuse of products, the recycling of material and energy recovery, with landfill as the last resort.

It also sets out new recycling targets, which MEP Caroline Jackson, the rapporteur behind the directive, helped secure on 17 June.

These state that by 2020, all EU countries must recycle 50% of the glass, paper, metal and plastic thrown out by households, and 70% of construction and demolition waste.

Environmental Services Association chief executive Dirk Hazell, who praised Jackson's "forensic brilliance" in negotiating the deal, said the directive, which will become law in 2010, would help to make Europe "more economically and environmentally sustainable".

Jane Bickerstaffe, director of The Industry Council for Packaging and the Environment (Incpen), also welcomed the new legislation.

"We're happy with it. It streamlines the waste regulations and allows a range of materials to be collected separately," she said.

"However, the five-point waste hierarchy is only fine in terms of providing guidance on waste management; it should not used as guidance for packaging design and the selection of packaging material used."

The directive will repeal the current Waste Framework directive (2006/12/EC), the directive on Hazardous Waste (91/689/EEC) and part of the directive on Waste Oils (75/439/EEC).