ECN letter to EU Commission
Separate Collection and End-of-Waste Criteria for Biowaste ? Essential to Drive forward Europe?s Circular EconomyExpecting the publication of the new Circular Economy Action Plan and the new proposal for the revision on waste legislation in December 2015 the European Compost Network took the chance to underline the importance of a new and more ambitious proposal for the biowaste sector by sending an open letter to the Vice-Presidents and Commissioners.
Based on the ECN position statement the letter is focussing on the resource potential of biowaste and the relevance of setting up a comprehensive product-waste policy in Europe. Legal drivers like the obligation to introduce separate collection of biowaste in all Member States and setting up European end-of-waste criteria for compost and digestate are needed for the development of a sustainable waste management Europe and achieving a Circular Economy in Europe. Besides the beneficial effects on resource management, the management of biowaste will have as well positive effects on job creation. With the expansion of separate collection and management of biowaste more than 30.000 jobs could be created, mainly locally, in Europe.
The ECN Letter to the Vice- Presidents and the Commissioners can be downloaded here.

Announcement – First Call
ORBIT 2016, 25-28 May 2016 Crete (GR)
ECN?s next ORBIT conference will be held in Heraklion, Crete on 25th to 28th May 2016. Focussing on the ?Circular Economy and Organic Waste Management?, it is the tenth biennial conference on Organic Resources and Biological Waste Treatment, signalling 20 years of excellence in scientific research and professional networking.
ORBIT 2016 will be organised by Harokopio University of Athens (Prof. Dr. Katia Lasaridi), the Technological Educational Institute of Crete (Associate Prof. Dr. Thrassyvoulos Manios) and ECN.
The Conference will run parallel oral and poster sessions, with sessions including:
Composting and anaerobic digestion technologies and processes;
- Food waste prevention;
- Bio-based economy and the biorefinery concept;
- MBT: technologies and products;
- Energy recovery from biomass / biofuels;
- EU policies and strategies for sustainable organic resources and waste management ? the challenge of circular economy; and
- Climate change, LCA and decision support tools.
The submission of abstracts is now open. Please submit your abstracts until 31 December 2016.
Further information and registration here. |