18 May 2016 – In December of last year, the European Commission released its long-awaited Circular Economy Package (CEP), a package of actio
ns and legislative amendments intended to stimulate Europe’s transition to a stronger
and more circular economy. This follows the Commission’s withdrawal of the original CEP in December 2014, with the promise to put forward a proposal that was “more ambitious” than its predecessor.
It is debatable as to whether this new legislation has actually achieved that. While the new package has some positive elements, the legislative part amending various directives on waste has clearly been weakened compared to the 2014 proposal, and is actually less ambitious on waste management, prevention, reuse, and recycling targets – to name a few.
This article takes a closer look at those targets and explains why they are problematic.
