Part of the EU’s efforts to establish a so-called green taxonomy – that is, investment guidelines and criteria to channel private investments in sustainable practices and sectors – a technical report looking at the potential activities and sectors to be included in the taxonomy was published in June 2019. On 5 December, EU negotiators agreed on the key activities to be included in the taxonomy, deciding, crucially, to exclude gas and nuclear energy.
Regarding waste collection, the report found that the potential harm related to this activity stemmed from the emissions from collection vehicles and from the risk of mixing source-segregated waste fractions in storage and transfer facilities.
In order to mitigate these impacts, the report recommends that collection vehicles meet the Euro V standard or higher and that collection practices comply with relevant EU and national laws and waste management strategies.
As per the taxonomy, the “collection and transport of waste includes i.e. bins, containers, vehicles, ancillary technological equipment and IT systems, reverse vending machines, services useful to separate waste collection (i.e. information campaigns, activities of waste advisers), as well as related temporary storage and transfer facilities.” (pp. 303)
Source: European Commission