Review of end-of-waste criteria and the possibility of setting new European end-of-waste criteria: what will be done with wastewater and sewage sludge?

Subject: Review of end-of-waste criteria and the possibility of setting new European end-of-waste criteria: what will be done with wastewater and sewage sludge?

In its European ‘Circular Economy Action Plan’, Parliament asked the Commission to submit a list of waste streams that should be prioritised when revising the European end-of-waste criteria and potentially developing new such criteria. Many valuable raw materials can be recovered from wastewater and sewage sludge. Besides recovered water and fertiliser products, nitrogen and sulphur components, phosphorus salts, biopolymers, bioplastics, fibres, proteins and algae can also be recovered from wastewater and sewage sludge. Many initiatives have already been taken to recover secondary raw materials from these two waste streams. However, these materials are not popular on the market due to their status as waste in accordance with Directive 2008/98/EC (Waste Framework Directive). Without the development of EU end-of-waste criteria, the market for secondary materials will not be able to grow and the necessary incentives to roll out a business case or to develop new technologies to better treat wastewater and to separate materials will be lacking.

1. Does the Commission intend to prioritise the development of EU end-of-waste criteria for materials that can be recovered from sewage treatment plants?

2. The Commission indicated in its EU Circular Economy Action Plan 2.0 that it intended to bolster the internal market for high-quality secondary raw materials. What plans has the Commission drawn up to achieve this goal?

Answer given by Mr Sinkevičius on behalf of the European Commission (19 November 2021)

The Commission is in the process of assessing the waste streams to be prioritised for EU wide end-of-waste criteria and for that purpose it has organised several stakeholder consultations (1) and workshops (2). The Commission intends to finalise that assessment by the end of 2021 so as to commence the development of the EU end of waste criteria in 2022.

Regarding materials obtained from wastewater or sewage sludge, the Commission has recently adopted (3) end-of-waste criteria, developed under the Fertilising Products Regulation (4), for precipitated phosphate salts, thermal oxidation materials and their derivates. Work is ongoing for the adoption of end-of-waste criteria for the recovery of nutrients of high purity by purification of the off-gases derived from waste water or sewage sludge. To be noted also that the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive (5) will be reviewed in the second quarter of 2022.

As indicated in the Circular Economy Action plan (6), the Commission will also take other actions to facilitate a well-functioning internal market for secondary raw materials, including to enhance the role of standardisation, make timely use of the restrictions on the use of substances of very high concern, develop mandatory recycled content requirements and facilitate the uptake of products containing recycled content through mandatory green public procurement rules.

⋅1∙ Targeted consultation on End-of-Waste and By-Products. Open in EU Survey between 28 October 2020 and 15 January 2021.

⋅2∙ Scoping the development of further EU-wide end-of-waste criteria and by-product criteria. Remote workshop organised by the European Commission on the 14-

15 September 2021. A specific consultation was conducted linked to this workshop. ⋅3∙ https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/12163-Fertilising-products-precipitated-phosphate-salts-and-derivates_en ⋅4∙ Regulation (EU) 2019/1009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 June 2019 laying down rules on the making available on the market of EU fertilising

products and amending Regulations (EC) No 1069/2009 and (EC) No 1107/2009 and repealing Regulation (EC) No 2003/2003, OJ L 170, 25.6.2019, p. 1‐114. ⋅5∙ Council Directive 91/271/EEC of 21 May 1991 concerning urban waste water treatment. OJ L 135, p.40. 30.5.1991. ⋅6∙ https://ec.europa.eu/environment/strategy/circular-economy-action-plan_en