“Our research shows that a recycling target of 70% would more than half a million new jobs by 2020, a significant contribution to the 3 million green jobs that European Commission President José Manuel Barroso order for that same year, “said Michael Warhurst of Friends of the Earth Europe.
The report estimates between 563,000 and 750,000 jobs would need to create the EU to recycle 70% of the main flows of municipal, commercial, industrial and construction and demolition. This level of recycling is already reached, for example, in Flanders (Belgium). The report has been prepared URSUS Consulting economist Anna MacGillivray.
“The recycling of waste creates ten times more jobs than disposal in landfill or by incineration. Landfills and incinerators are the final destination of more than 5,250 million tons of recyclable material per year in the EU “, says the study.
“If you recycle all this material, it would save the equivalent of 148 million tonnes of greenhouse gases, which equivalent to taking 47 million cars off the road,” said a statement of Ecologists in Action, which has broadcast the news.
“The Environment Commissioner., Janez Potocnik, said that the efficiency of resources is a priority. We must not miss the opportunity to make it happen,” said Warhurst.
The organization proposed that the EU should adopt more ambitious targets for recycling, and leave the landfill and incineration of materials that can be recycled.
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