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European Commission's Discussion Document on a Biowaste Directive
Introduction
The European Commission has published a discussion document on a proposed Biowaste Directive, which will be developed as part of the Thematic Strategy on Soil Protection. The Commission aims to establish rules on the safe use, recovery, recycling and disposal of biowaste, to control potential land contamination and to encourage the use of certified compost. The Directive will focus on biodegradable municipal waste (BMW) and complements the BMW diversion targets of the Landfill Directive.
While the document does not necessarily reflect the Commission's position or the decisions the Commission will eventually take, it mirrors the two working documents on the management of biowaste published in 2000 and 2001 and can be considered an accurate summary of the key issues the Commission will consider.
Current trends in biowaste management
Member States produce between 100 and 140 million tonnes of municipal biodegradable waste every year. Overall, about 65% of MSW is sent to landfill, 20% to incineration, 10% to recycling and 5% to composting, although the performance of individual Member States varies considerably. In the UK around 20 million tonnes of BMW are produced every year with 77% sent to landfill, 13% recycled and composted and energy is extracted from 9%.
Key points in the discussion document
The Commission's original discussions, based on the two working documents of 2000 and 2001, were focussed on setting standards for composted products. The evolution of the debate on biowaste management in the intervening period has led to the inclusion of a wider range of biological treatment issues and environmental outcomes.
This more strategic approach aims to:
- fulfil the targets of the Landfill Directive;
- contribute to the EU Soil Strategy (promoting the use of high quality compost and preventing the contamination of soils; and
- complement the Thematic Strategy on waste prevention and recycling.
Scope
The current focus of the discussion document is the biological treatment of biowaste and as the Directive will be developed as part of the Thematic Strategy for soil protection, the protection of soil through appropriate controls on treated biodegradable waste applied to land will be one of the central objectives. In effect, the Commission wishes to develop a 'composting' Directive.
Separate collection
The Commission appears to favour mandatory separate collection of biowaste and intends to evaluate whether an obligation of separate collection of biowaste should be introduced across the EU. As a further extension of this position, the Commission considers that only biologically treated material produced from source separated material should be classified as 'compost'.
Process requirements
In a further indication of the prescriptive thinking on biowaste, the Commission considers that separately collected biowaste should be subject to a defined composting process, encompassing time and temperature requirements, in order to produce high quality compost meeting specified quality standards.
Quality requirements for compost
The Commission believes that compost should achieve EU-wide quality requirements which would set maximum tolerable levels of certain pollutants and pathogens. The quality requirements would complement the requirement for separate collection and defined process standards.
In addition to high quality 'compost' the Commission envisages a range of standards perhaps based on a minimum standard to which biologically treated waste would have to be treated before being applied to land. This would allow lower grade materials to be used for different applications such as restoration purposes or contaminated land remediation.
Mechanical Biological Treatment
The Commission recognises the role of MBT in the large-scale processing of municipal waste, but believes that stabilised biowaste resulting from MBT should not be called compost. The discussion document proposes the introduction of a technical specification to assess when stabilised waste would not be considered actively biodegradable in the context of meeting Landfill Directive targets.
Relationship with the Animal By-Products Regulation (ABPR)
The Biowaste Directive will also address the biological treatment of catering waste, which is currently controlled by the EU Animal By-Products Regulation. The Regulation makes reference to the Biowaste Directive in order to ensure that the controls on catering waste do not hinder the development of new rules on environmental protection. Once the Directive is in force, its provisions will supersede the requirements of the Animal By-Products Regulation with regard to the composting of catering waste.
March 2004 
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