An European court of justice judge has made the first attempt at providing a definitive legal interpretation of the concept of recycling under the EU packaging waste directive. In an opinion for the full court in a case referred from the UK, advocate general S Alber says waste cannot be considered recycled until it has been fully reprocessed into a pure form suitable for immediate re-use. Until that point, he said, the material must be considered as waste, even it it has an economic value and will not be discarded by its owner. The strict interpretation is a blow to the secondary raw materials industry, which wants EU waste handling requirements eased for recovered materials. If confirmed by the full court, it will also vindicate interpretations of the law by the European Commission and several EU governments.
