On tuesday 20th of May 2014, five days before the election of the new European Parliament, Cniid - Zero Waste France launched a twitter campaign to attract French candidates’ and political parties’ attention on European waste policy.

Candidates are asked to indicate which of the 26 proposals, listed by Zero Waste France, they would support in the European Parliament, in the case they were elected.

Our 26 proposals for an ambitious European waste policy

To begin with, we treat some general targets to guide the coming revision of the European waste directives by making the following proposals to the candidates:

1. To set an ambitious 25% target for waste reduction and prevention
2. To set general reuse targets, as well as sub-targets for specific waste streams (packaging, textiles etc.)
3. To set a target for separate collection and recovery of organic waste, covering at least 50% of households
4. To set sub-targets for the recycling of each material; 60% for plastic, 80% for paper-cardboard, 90% for glass, 100% for metal and 90% for wood by 2025
5. To set a zero-residual-waste target by 2025

Secondly, candidates are asked about their support for the following regulatory tools:

6. To make source separation of organic waste compulsory by 2025
7. To make separate waste collection compulsory by 2025
8. To prohibit the incineration and storage of recyclable and compostable waste
9. To revise the hierarchy of waste management methods in order to give priority to source separation and recovery of resources
10. To review the formula R1 which determines the energy efficiency of incinerators
11. To harmonize waste separation indication on a European level

We also point to economic tools by proposing:

12. To set a target for putting in place an incentive pricing
13. To tax incineration and landfilling
14. To return to a deposit system in order to encourage the reuse of packaging
15. To establish a European wide taxation system for disposable and single-use products

Concerning reporting tools, we ask French candidates whether they support:

16. To harmonize member states’ reporting system
17. To improve monitoring of companies’ waste management
18. To halve the disposal of waste in maritime environments within one generation
19. To prohibit the usage of plastic miroballons in cosmetics

When it comes to directives on landfilling, our proposals include:

20. To prohibit dumping of recyclable and compostable waste
21. To prohibit dumping of waste that was not previously treated
22. To make it compulsory to capture and recover biogas released through landfilling

Finally, we would like to attracts candidates’ attention on packaging and plastic bags by asking them:

23. To set targets to reduce packaging at the source
24. To set targets for the reuse of packaging
25. To prohibit single-use plastic bags
26. If not, to tax plastic bags at the European level and to prohibit their free availability

More than 150 short messages asking candidates to take a stand on these 26 propositions were tweeted and retweeted by members of Zero Waste France and followers on May 20th.
By now (one day after) nine candidates from three parties have replied to the propositions; more are expected in the days to come.

If you want to support this initiative, follow @ZeroWasteFR or @Asso_Cniid on twitter and retweet the messages.