Two new Directives have been published by the EU changing waste rules:

• Directive (EU) 2018/851amends the Waste Framework Directive
• Directive (EU) 2018/850 amends Directive 1999/31/EC on the landfill of waste

Directive (EU) 2018/851 of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directive 2008/98/EC on waste

This Directive makes amendments to Directive 2008/98/EC on waste (the Waste Framework Directive) which provides the legislative framework for the collection, transport, recovery and disposal of waste.

This Directive makes amendments in order to increase targets for preparing for re-use and recycling of waste, and makes changes to the end-of-waste status following recovery.

This Directive establishes household hazardous waste collection. By 1st January 2025, Member States must set up separate collection for hazardous waste produced by households to ensure that they are treated correctly and do no contaminate other municipal waste streams.

This Directive establishes bio-waste separation by adding a new requirement for bio-waste separation. By 31st December 2023, bio-waste must be separated and recycled at source, or must be collected separately and not mixed with other types of waste.

Other amendments include:

• Set out exemptions for separation of waste.
• Remove substances intended for animal feed from the scope of Directive 2008/98/EC.
• Add a number of new definitions
• Update record keeping requirements.

Directive (EU) 2018/850 of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directive 1999/31/EC on the landfill of waste

This Directive amends Council Directive 1999/31/EC (the Landfill Directive).

The EU have identified that waste management in the Union should be improved to:

• protect, preserve and improve the quality of the environment.
• protect human health,
• ensure prudent, efficient and rational utilisation of natural resources,
• promote the principles of the circular economy, increasing energy efficiency and reducing the dependence of the Union on imported resources.

The targets laid down in the Landfill Directive setting landfill restrictions will be strengthened to make them better reflect the Union’s ambition to move to a circular economy and gradually reducing to a minimum landfilling of waste destined for landfills for non-hazardous waste.

Article 1 of the Landfill Directive is amended with a view to supporting the Union’s transition to a circular economy and meeting the requirements of the Waste Framework Directive.

Article 1 sets the aim of the Landfill Directive to ensure a progressive reduction of landfilling of waste, in particular of waste that is suitable for recycling or other recovery.

This includes operational and technical requirements on the waste and landfills to prevent or reduce as far as possible negative effects on the environment, in particular the pollution of:

• surface water, groundwater,
• soil
• air
• and on the global environment, including the greenhouse effect,

as well as any resulting risk to human health, from landfilling of waste, during the whole life-cycle of the landfill.

Definitions in the Landfill Directive are updated to align with the definitions in the Waste Framework Directive, and a minor amendment is made to take account of the waste of ‘isolated settlements’.

The Landfill Directive previously excluded the deposit of unpolluted soil or of non-hazardous inert waste resulting from prospecting and extraction, treatment, and storage of mineral resources as well as from the operation of quarries. The exclusion is removed by this Directive. (The management of waste from land-based extractive industries shall be excluded from the scope of the Landfill Directive where it falls within the scope of other Union legislative acts).

Member States shall take measures in order that waste that has been separately collected for re-use and recycling pursuant the Waste Framework Directive is not sent to landfill, subject to certain exceptions.

A new paragraph is inserted which sets out that Member States shall endeavour to ensure that as of 2030, all waste suitable for recycling or other recovery, in particular in municipal waste, shall not be accepted in a landfill with the exception of waste for which landfilling delivers the best environmental outcome.

Member States shall take the necessary measures to ensure that by 2035 the amount of municipal waste landfilled is reduced to 10 % or less of the total amount of municipal waste generated (by weight).

Other new articles are added in regard to:

• Rules on the calculation of the attainment of the targets
• Early warning reports
• Exchange of information and best practices