As reported previously in Recycling International, re-appraisal of when a waste ceases to become waste lies at the heart of the European Commission’s thematic strategy on the prevention and recycling of waste. However, there are fears that the envisaged case-by-case decision-making process could be made longer and more unpredictable following an initial debate on the thematic strategy within the European Parliament’s Environment Committee.
Committee members argued that case-by-case definitions of when a waste ceases to be a waste should be agreed through the EU’s potentially more time-consuming co-decision procedure rather than being left to the European Commission and member states through the so-called ‘comitology’ process.
