Danish EPA | New report on waste tracking (MW) through the treatment chain for final recycling

The revised EU waste directives impose new requirements on the way in which waste is recycled, where waste under the revised directives is only considered recycled when included in the final reprocessing. As a result, the new method of calculation requires that Member States be able to follow the waste through the treatment chain until final reprocessing.

This report attempts to identify how far the waste can be traced through its recycling chain against recycling, and the type of waste being investigated is waste fractions belonging to household and household-like waste. The traceability of the fractions of paper, cardboard, glass, metal, plastic, wood and textiles was thus investigated via interviews with a total of 19 Danish and European waste players who either collect, sort or process one or more of the waste fractions in question. Furthermore, the report investigates where average loss rates can be used in the treatment chains when it is no longer possible to trace the waste.