At the last General Assembly meeting in November 2003 ECOBA decided to comment on the "Communication from the Commission: Towards a thematic strategy on the prevention and recycling of waste", based on a proposal prepared by the ECOBA Environmental Issues Committee.
The "Communication from the Commission" describes the reasons for a thematic strategy on prevention and recycling of waste and invited to discuss i.a. potentials for waste prevention as well as options to promote recycling, i.a. development of material based recycling targets and identification of unnecessary burdens on the recycling industry.
In its comment on the communication ECOBA proposed to exclude industrial residues from the definition of "waste" and to consider them products if the production process is controlled to meet the requirements of the industriy (e.g. standards, specifications), and if the product is offered to the markets as secondary raw material to replace natural raw materials.
Based on the numerous comments a draft resolution on the thematic waste strategy was presented by Mr Karl-Heinz Florenz to the European Parliament's Environment Committee in February 2004. At their meeting in March 2004, the committee members voted on the Florenz report, which is attached for your information (waste strategy_Florenz report_03.04.pdf). The outcome was i.a., that the Committee calls on the Commission to define "environmental impact", "waste prevention", "reuse", "recycling", "recycler", "recovery" and to distinguish waste and non-waste, and recovery and disposal as soon as possible. "Reuse" would be separated from "recovery" and promoted in its own right.

waste_strategy_florenz_report_03.04.pdf (178 kB)