BIC and Zero Waste Europe to issue a report on biowaste generation in the EU
Type of post: NEWS.
The Bio-based Industries Consortium (BIC) has teamed up with Zero Waste Europe (ZWE) to produce a report identifying the untapped potential to valorise biowaste (garden and food
waste) in Europe.
Press release: “Tackling Europe’s food waste problem
– bio-based industries offer innovative
solutions”, 15/6/2020.
A summary of the report “Bio-waste generation
in the EU: Current capture levels and future potential” is now available here. The full report will be made
available to the public on 6 July 2020.
Figure 1. Comparison theoretical potential /
currently collected of food waste and bio-waste (taken from the press release)
There are two major types of biowaste: garden and
food waste as defined in EU regulations (the revised Waste Framework
Directive). This report focuses on food waste in particular, although
calculations also cover biowaste as a whole.
Summary of the content
- Chapter 1: Outlining of the EU policy drivers
for the management of biowaste. One of which will be the new Waste Framework
Directive (WFD), which mandates biowaste collection from 1 January 2024
onwards.
- Chapter 2: Methodology. The report builds on
public information and national data from the 27 Member States + UK and Norway
(EU27+) for bio-waste generation, making a number of assumptions on how to
calculate the current capture of bio-waste and the theoretical potential.
- Chapter 3: Results. In the EU27+, current
capture of food waste is 9,520,091 tons per year, just 16% of the theoretical
potential, estimated at 59,938,718 tons (see Figure 1). The report defines a
target capture level, the “operational potential”, of around 85% of the
theoretical potential, so as to calculate how much food waste, currently left
in mixed waste, may actually be still recovered.
- Chapter 4: Best practices in biowaste
management. This includes the cases of Milan, Catalonia and some municipalities
in France. BBI JU funded projects are also included as examples of best
practices for sustainably valorising biowaste to provide new biobased compounds
for the chemicals, food-packaging and agricultural sectors.
- Country factsheets. They provide calculations
for various countries, and other specific information that is relevant to biowaste
management strategies and perspectives in that specific country.
Statements
“The bio-based sector is already valorising
bio-waste in smart and efficient processes with zero-waste objectives. Several
projects funded by the Bio-based Industries Joint Undertaking (BBI JU)
demonstrate how innovation in our sector can convert bio-waste into high-value
bio-based products.” says Dirk Carrez, BIC Executive Director. “The bio-based
industries seek to achieve a resource-efficient and zero-waste society as
identified in our Vision. The planned EU public-private partnership – Circular
bio-based Europe – will help further realise this” he added.
“The report shows that biowaste management remains
an untapped potential for the European Union to further transition to a
Circular Economy. Only 16% of the potential is currently captured and, through
proper initiatives, this number could be multiplied by 5 so as to reach 85%.
This shows the need for the EU and Members States to maintain and strengthen
their effort in biowaste collection and treatment as key steps towards soil
regeneration, circularity and climate neutrality” added Pierre Condamine, Waste
Policy Officer at Zero Waste Europe.
