CIRCULAR ECONOMY, METHANE EMISSIONS, WASTE MANAGEMENT, AND THE COURTS’ ROLE

Methane emissions and waste management Agriculture still represents the largest share of anthropogenic methane emission sources in the EU. So much so that the use of agricultural waste and residues for biogas production is considered to be a driver for the circular economy, provided that the cascading use principle is adhered to and the appropriate sustainability criteria are applied. Fugitive emissions from leaking equipment, infrastructure or closed and abandoned sites, as well as emissions from venting and the incomplete combustion of methane, represent the majority of methane emissions in the energy sector, by far the second most important methane emission source. However, landfills of municipal solid waste have also been identified as a further significant source of methane, even if their role is much lower than that of agriculture and energy (Cossu et al., 2020). Consequently, the EU Parliament new strategy on methane calls on the Commission to integrate a strong focus on methane emissions in the 2024 review of the Landfill Directive and the upcoming revision of the Industrial Emissions Directive. The strategy goes on by highlighting the need for measures to require landfill sites to use the bio-methane they produce until its energy content drops below a useful value and, once it is no longer viable to use the bio-methane produced at a landfill site, for the use of bio-oxidation and other technologies in hot spots in order to reduce the remaining methane emissions (Grossule and Stegmann, 2020). After generally emphasizing that closure and after-care procedures for landfill cells are key to reducing leakages, taking into account the entire life cycle of landfill sites, the EU Parliament strategy generically affirms that “landfill disposal, which sits at the bottom of the waste hierarchy, is the most polluting way to manage waste both in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants to air, soil and water”. Such an assertion seems to elicit – as Cossu (2020) puts it – “an idealistic order which is scarcely reliable to the real world” and to not take into account the virtuous role that, under strict conditions, sustainable landfills can Normally defined as a new and sustainable model of production and consumption, circular economy involves sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing and recycling existing materials and products as long as possible. The obvious aim is to extend the life cycle of products. Under the European Green Deal and in line with a proposed new industrial strategy, in March 2020 the European Commission presented the new circular economy action plan (EU Circular Economy Action Plan, 2020). It is about product design, reducing waste and empowering consumers (e.g., via the introduction of a right to repair). In February 2021 the Parliament adopted a resolution on the new circular economy action plan, demanding additional measures to achieve a carbon-neutral, environmentally sustainable, toxic-free and fully circular economy by 2050, including tighter recycling rules and binding targets for materials use and consumption by 2030.