Nature Trust (Malta) and Friends of the Earth (Malta) have urged Maltese MEPs and the Maltese government to redress what the environmental NGOs call the backward steps introduced by the European Commission in two recent documents on waste.

These documents are the Thematic Strategy On The Prevention And Recycling Of Waste and the proposal for a revised Waste Framework Directive.

Whereas the NGOs are in favour of European and national targets for reducing and recycling waste, the Commission, they said, has decided not to propose legislation with recycling targets on biodegradable wastes or other waste streams.

It is moving away from harmonised EU waste management policies towards the re-nationalisation of waste management, they charged. They said more priority should be given to recycling, composting and waste minimisation in a bid to promote a society whose waste management after "reduction" is dominated almost totally by "reuse" and "recycling". The aim would be to progressively eliminate residual wastes that necessitate disposal through incineration or landfill.

Better use of resources and decreased wasteful disposals benefit both the environment and public health, the NGOs said.

They disagree that waste incineration is put on the same level as reuse and recycling. Recycling, they said, preserves resources and saves more greenhouse gas emissions than incineration with energy recovery methods.

Waste incineration, they added, was removed as an option in the National Strategy for Solid Waste Management after lengthy consultations during the drafting of Malta's national policy.

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