EU must do away with 'concept of waste'

Janez Potočnik highlights the importance of a circular economy in a time of increasing competition and diminishing resources.

By Janez Potocnik

27 May 2014

One of the things I like most about Green Week is that it really is a genuine forum of exchange, an opportunity for everyone to make their voice heard. That also makes it an ideal place for the commission to test new ideas.

The EU is suffering from persistently high levels of unemployment. In the face of volatile and rising resource prices, risks to security of supply, growing competition and stagnant demand, companies are being challenged to achieve new levels of efficient resource use. This last Green Week of my mandate will address these questions head-on, asking - 'what economic model should we use to respond to all these challenges at once?'

The current linear economic model, where we produce goods and services, consume them for a short time and then throw them away, is leading to massive waste. Some of the inefficiencies that result are astonishing: 80 per cent of what we produce is used only once and then discarded. Only 15 per cent of the energy you put in your petrol tank is used to actually move your car down the road and turning coal into light is still only three per cent efficient. That's waste we can't afford.

"In recent years the EU has been putting in place policies and targets to ensure that we can live well, within the limits of our planet"

But how can we turn these challenges into opportunities, and turn waste into resources and jobs? The answer will necessarily involve the participation of all stakeholders in the economic value-chain. Focusing on waste prevention can create new jobs in collection and sorting. New skills may be needed to design products for repair and recycling. A wholesale rethinking of attitudes across society must drive this process of change.

More than anything - and here we come back to Green Week 2014 - it means changing old habits. It means breaking our reliance on new materials, and encouraging re-use, re-manufacturing and the systematic recycling of materials. Green Week, with a focus on 'closing the loop', will be looking at how we can involve all sectors of society to make it happen.

We will be looking at some of the good examples of this sort of thinking already out there, with a view to scaling them up at international, national and local levels. We will also be looking for ways to unlock the investments and innovations that will be required.

For what may prove to be my final Green Week, we have decided to do something different. There is a growing perception that environmental campaigns are no longer working and that despite the popular support of civil society and sections of the business community, investment in clean technologies and the political rhetoric committing to urgent action, greener economic models are not cutting through into the mainstream at the pace that is required. With this in mind, we have organised an event on 3 June, the first day of Green Week, which brings together personalities active in the field of environment to discuss why we have not collectively made the necessary breakthroughs and how we might do so in the future.

The aim is to put the spotlight on the most critical environmental issues currently facing the planet and help generate ideas about how we can make the breakthroughs which are becoming more and more urgent. We also hope we can inspire people to continue or to take up the challenge of environmental activism.

We have assembled a fascinating line-up of speakers, including Jeffrey Sachs (world-renowned economist and advisor to Ban-Ki Moon), film director Yann Arthus Bertrand, executive director of recycle across America Mitch Hedlund, executive director of the UN environment programme Achim Steiner, director-general of WWF International Marco Lambertini, author and activist Sandra Steingraber, film director Jacques Perrin and executive director of Avaaz Ricken Patel.

In a TED-type format moderated by journalist James Murray, speakers will outline their personal experiences and views on where they think the environmental movement needs to go from here. The audience will also have the opportunity to ask questions. It promises to be something not be missed.

In recent years the EU has been putting in place policies and targets to ensure that we can live well, within the limits of our planet. The EU environment action programme to 2020, the Europe 2020 strategy and its resource-efficient Europe flagship initiative set out a roadmap for the transformation to an economy that creates more with less.

We now need to build on these. The aftermath of Green Week will see the commission proposing a circular economy package that will set out the key building blocks needed to unlock EU economic potential to be more productive while using fewer resources. The package will review several EU directives, and reviewing waste targets, with the aim of driving greater resource efficiency.

My ultimate goal is to see Europe make the logical choice and opt for a more circular economy. An economy where we strive for more added value and wellbeing from each unit of resource, from each ton of materials, each hectare of land, each joule of energy, and each cubic metre of water. An economy fit for tomorrow - an economy where we have, quite simply, binned the concept of waste. Green Week 2014 will be looking for ways to make it happen.