The role of End of Waste Criteria in the Framework of Circular Economy Strategy

More than 1.8 billion tonnes of waste are produced each year in Europe. This equals to 3.5 t per person and are mainly produced from commercial activities (e.g. shops, hospitals, restaurants), industry (e.g. clothes manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies), agriculture (e.g. slurry), construction and demolition projects, mining and quarrying activities from energy production as well as from household activities. Waste can be divided into several categories: municipal waste (including household and commercial), industrial waste (including manufacturing), hazardous waste, construction and demolition waste, mining waste, waste from electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), biodegradable municipal waste, packaging waste, end-of-life vehicles and tires, agricultural waste. Article 6 in WFD (2008/98) defines that those wastes must be reduced as well as contain provisions to define end-of-waste criteria (EWC) that provide a high level of environmental protection and an economic benefit. Qualifications and requirements should be established in agreement with certain conditions described in the directive to check if specific waste streams have reached an end-of-waste (EoW) status. The main goal of EWC is to remove and eliminate the administrative loads of waste legislation for safe and high-quality waste materials, thereby facilitating and assisting recycling. The target is to produce effective with high quality of recyclables materials, promoting product standardisation and quality and safety assurance, and improving harmonisation and legal certainty in the recyclable material markets. At the same time EWC aim to develop a strategy plan in order to improve the expansion, progress and wider use of environmental technologies, which reduce pressure on environment and at the same time address the three dimensions of the Lisbon Strategy on growth, jobs and environment. EWC could be useful toll in the framework of circular economy strategy as affect several management systems, industrial processing, clean technologies. The presentation will analysis the role of EWC in the framework of Circular Economy through several case studies such as Tire Pyrolysis Oil, Compost etc.