EU urged to improve sorting of mixed household waste to boost recycling

In a rare show of unity, business and environmental groups have published a joint letter calling on EU policymakers to back mandatory sorting of mixed household waste, saying this is the only way to meet EU recycling goals and prevent the incineration of recyclable paper, metals, and plastics.

The letter, published in late January, urges the European Parliament to introduce an obligation on EU countries to sort mixed household waste in order to extract recyclable materials before they are sent to incineration or dumped in landfills.

It is backed by an unusual coalition of 19 green NGOs and business groups, including Zero Waste Europe (ZWE), the European Environmental Bureau (EEB), the association of European Plastics Converters (EuPC), Flexible Packaging Europe, Metal Packaging Europe (MPE) ,and the European Manufacturers of Expanded Polystyrene (EUMEPS).

“One third of the total amounts of household flexible packaging collected were found in the mixed household waste stream even though separate collection was in place,” says Flexible Packaging Europe, one of the signatories of the letter, published in late January.