As part of the Commission’s December package on the Circular Economy , amendments to several waste management Directives were proposed, including WEEE, batteries, packaging and end of life vehicles (ELV). The amendments are mainly focused on how EU Member States report their takeback and recycling results; however for certain types of waste, such as packaging, the recycling levels have been increased.

The Commission has set the following target for waste management:

• a common EU target for recycling municipal waste of 65% by 2030;
• a common EU target for recycling packaging waste of 75% by 2030.
• material-specific targets for different packaging materials;
• • a binding landfill reduction target of 10% by 2030;

The last bullet means that by 2030, the Commission expects that only 10% of all waste in the EU goes to landfill. The other 90% needs to be recycled or used for energy recovery.

For packaging, the proposed Directive sets the following long-term recycling targets:

(i) no later than 31 December 2030 the following minimum targets by weight for preparing for reuse and recycling will be met regarding the following specific materials contained in packaging waste:

(i) 75% of wood;
(ii) 85% of ferrous metal;
(iii) 85% of aluminium;
(iv) 85% of glass;
(v) 85% of paper and cardboard.