Natural Resources & Waste

Our Work

Over the years IEEP has made significant contributions to the development and assessment of many aspects of EU waste legislation and policy. Since the first EU Waste Framework Directive was adopted in 1975, legislation has expanded dramatically to cover many specific waste streams and various areas of waste management, including landfill, hazardous waste, shipment of waste and waste statistics.

We have conducted a number of broad-scale reviews of legislation, including assessing the coherence of the EU recycling Directives and analysing the effectiveness of specific EU policies. We have also assessed measures taken by the Member States, such as economic instruments used in the waste management sector (e.g. disposal taxes and pay-as-you-throw systems) and extended producer responsibility schemes for specific waste streams (e.g. packaging, waste electrical and electronic equipment, batteries and end-of-life vehicles).

Regarding work in this area, please contact Emma Watkins.

More about our work in this area...

Latest in Waste Legislation & Policy

  • Tackling marine litter with the circular economy and the EU Plastics Strategy

    IEEP identifies how the EU Plastics Strategy and Circular Economy Action Plan provide a unique opportunity to address marine litter and its impacts.

  • Plastics, Marine Litter and the Circular Economy

    Briefing and three product fiches explore circular economy solutions for reducing the flow of plastic waste into the oceans.

  • Biofrontiers – sustainability critical to the development of advanced biofuels

    Adherence to effective and workable sustainability criteria is an essential requirement when using public support to incentivise advanced alternative fuels.

  • How to stimulate a bio-economy based on waste? – A study for the UK Government

    Waste resources have the potential to provide a core component of developing bio-economies across the globe. A new IEEP report reviews how waste has been incorporated into existing bio-economy strategies, and the conditions that have enabled this.

  • New open access book on marine litter

    A new book, 'Marine Anthropogenic Litter', has been published comprising 16 chapters on various aspects of the complex issue of litter in the world’s oceans. Researchers from IEEP contributed a chapter on the economics of marine litter. The whole book is free to view online.

  • Tackling environmental crime

    A workshop on environmental crime was held on 25 March in Granada, Spain, with Andrea Illes from IEEP providing insights into illegal e-waste shipments from the EU to China.

  • Case studies focusing on different types of environmental crime

    IEEP, as being part of a 40-months EU-funded research project, produced three case studies focusing on illegal e-waste shipment, illegal localised pollution incidents and illegal fishing.

  • EU waste law: the challenge of better compliance

    Waste management in the EU is improving, but implementation by the Member States of EU waste legislation remains patchy. This paper makes suggestions on how better compliance could be achieved.

  • Economic instruments to improve waste management

    This report investigates a range of economic instruments in place in the EU Member States to improve waste management. It focuses on disposal taxes, pay-as-you-throw systems and producer responsibility schemes, and attempts to assess their contribution to waste management performance.

  • Review of the Waste Thematic Strategy

    This report supported the European Commission’s review of the Thematic Strategy on the Prevention and Recycling of Waste. It summarises available data on waste management in the EU, assesses progress towards the EU becoming a ‘recycling society’, outlines the achievements of the Waste Thematic Strategy, and makes recommendations for the development of future EU waste policies.

Highlights