Speaking at the European Business Summit, Kurt Vandenberghe, the head of cabinet for Environment Commissioner Janez Potočnik, said it was the job of the Commission to make clear the links between waste management and macroeconomics, calling for a phasing out of environmental subsidies.
The call from Vandenberghe is one of a number by European Commission chiefs who have claimed that carrying out existing environmental legislation will help Europe exit its economic doldrums by cutting down on energy or natural resource use.
“Business is saying we’re in crisis because of too much green tape [environmental regulation] will not help. If we’re in a crisis it is not because there was too much but too little, not in environmental legislation but in the financial markets,” he said.
“What we don’t need in Europe is new environmental regulation but we need to implement the existing [waste regulation],” he said, citing its potential to create an estimated 400,000 new jobs.
Responding to business concerns, Vandenberghe stressed that greener practices were not necessarily at odds with industrialisation.
“We don’t want de-industrialisation. We want re-industrialisation but on a new model with de-materialisation. There are studies showing this is possible and profitable.”
A number of EU businesses had already begun cutting waste and implementing recycling rules along their production chain in a drive to lower costs and go green, he said.
Cities
Vandenberghe called on European cities to “break out of their silos” and to march towards a circular economy.
“Cities play a very fundamental role in this. Soon 80% of EU citizens will be in cities. The rising population offers business opportunities but poses a problem for sustainability,” he said.
The Commission's environment directorate is exploring the EU-wide potential for good waste-management practices. In March the European Parliament Greens held a conference with Environment Commissioner Janez Potočnik to explore the potential for zero-waste cities, inviting the mayor of Europe’s first such success story, the Italian municipality of Capannori.
The mayor, Giorgio DelGhingaro, said: “We do normal and concrete things, for example, the elimination of plastic bottles in school canteens, no plastic cutlery, self-composting, incentives for use of cloth diapers, distributors of milk/water on tap, and we have a Research Centre of Zero Waste for the analysis of the residual waste.”
Capannori councillors estimate that the measures have cut waste disposal costs by one-fifth compared to other municipalities.
In recent weeks the European institutions have pushed for greater awareness on waste management, holding a conference on zero-waste communities in the European Parliament and inviting the British actor Jeremy Irons to present his documentary ‘Trashed’ at the launch of a Commission green paper on waste.
Struggling to cope economically with the energy-rich United States and the rising industrial powerhouses of China and India, EU heads see resource efficiency a key driver of growth. On 29 May the EU executive will release recommendations to member states on how to cut waste and reduce the resulting tax burden.
