Environment for Europeans No. 54, November 2014

Reducing waste makes good environmental sense. It can also help us reach Europe’s full potential for green growth. More and more Europeans now recycle. The vast majority think Europe should use its resources more efficiently and there are strong indicators that they support further EU action in this field. The business case for turning Europe into a waste-free society is strong – as a matter of fact there is quite literally gold in waste – it takes a tonne of ore to get one gram of gold, but you can get the same amount of gold from recycling the materials from just 41 mobile phones. Already, the EU legislation on waste has helped Member States significantly reduce their use of landfills. People now understand better the wider benefits of repairing, reusing, remanufacturing and recycling. But the aim is to set more ambitious goals for recycling: this will reduce pressure on limited resources and help bring about a circular economy, which uses waste as a resource. To meet these goals, the Commission has tabled a series of new proposals, which include reviewing and revising the targets for the EU’s Waste Framework Directive (2008/98/EC), Landfill Directive (1999/31/EC) and Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive (94/62/EC). Ultimately, reducing waste will increase productivity – we can make more with less – and will help Europe cut back on expensive imports, opening the way for new industries and more jobs in the green circular economy. This edition of Environment for Europeans also looks at the Commission’s strategy to curb fuel consumption and CO2 emissions from trucks, buses and coaches, and finds out about the new computer simulation tool designed to calculate these emissions.

Other stories review the new EU proposals to improve the environmental performance of buildings throughout their life cycle, and introduce Ljubljana, in Slovenia, as the 2016 European Green Capital. Also included are a report on a series of 19 clean-energy projects under the NER (New Entrants' Reserve) 300 programme, a round-up of the first LIFE calls for environment and climate action projects, and coverage of the launch of the ‘EU Platform
on Coexistence between People and Large Carnivores’ held in June this year.

As usual, the issue concludes with a selection of upcoming events, new publications, and brief news of related environment and climate action activities in Europe and worldwide.

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