Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-09-02-Speech-1-045"
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"en.20020902.6.1-045"2
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".
Mr President, honourable Members, the European Union generated a total of 63.5 million tonnes of packaging waste in 1999, which amounts to something like 17% of municipal waste and 3% of the weight of all waste produced. Directive 94/62/EC on packaging and packaging waste resulted in a reduction of the environmental effects associated with packaging and packaging waste, particularly because more waste was collected, recycled and recovered.
Today, packaging is recycled all over Europe and no longer only in central and northern European countries. No Member State has failed to achieve the minimum targets for recycling for 2001 as early as 1998. This proposal is intended to lay down new targets for recycling and for recovery as a whole, significantly higher than those envisaged in the current version of the Packaging Directive.
The Commission proposal more than doubles the minimum target for recycling by fixing it at 55%, and raises the minimum target for recovery as a whole by 10%, to 60%. Parliament has repeatedly highlighted the need for the economic and environmental consequences of the targets for recovery and recycling to be taken into account. This was done in the most detailed cost-benefit analysis ever carried out on the Community's recycling targets. The additional finance required is estimated at a total of EUR 700 million per annum, with, by way of comparison, the costs of alternative disposal methods totalling EUR 800 million. The benefits to the environment are, in addition, estimated at around EUR 350 million.
There are, however, substantial differences between one type of packaging material and another, both as regards the environmental benefits and also the cost of recycling. It is for this reason that the Commission proposal not only specifies overall targets for recovery and recycling, but also targets differentiated according to the materials concerned. This is intended to have the effect of concentrating on those materials the recycling of which yields the greatest environmental benefit in comparison to the cost involved.
Some Member States have already achieved the new targets proposed by the Commission, whilst for others, whose recycling programmes have not yet reached this stage of development, these represent a major challenge.
I would like to add that I am presenting this proposal in place of my fellow Commissioner Mrs Wallström, who is spending today at the Johannesburg Summit on sustainable development."@en1
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