Ecopreneur.eu: Waste incineration should not be funded by EU

December 12, 2018 – EU funding for regional development and cohesion should not be used to subsidise the incineration of unsorted municipal waste. Ecopreneur.eu fully supports this position.

According to Zero Waste Europe, such funding was widely used to finance incinerators and waste-to-energy plants, thereby reducing the incentive to collect municipal waste separately for recycling. This issue is especially relevant for Central and Eastern European countries. They invested over 50% into residual waste treatment by incineration, at the same time they under-investing in separate collection and recycling schemes.

In November Ecopreneur.eu co-signed an Industry-NGO letter to the Members of the ITRE Committee. It called to vote against AM 63 and AM 219 which intentionally create unduly exemptions that allow cohesion funds to be used for facilities for the treatment of residual municipal waste.

This proposal was already supported by the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE). Now it has to pass the European Parliament’s Committee on Regional Development (REGI) in the European Parliament. REGI vote planned for on January 21-22.