ELA strongly supports the European objective to phase out the landfilling of untreated biodegradable waste.
Landfills receiving biodegradable waste can generate methane, a potent greenhouse gas, whose negative impact on the climate is 28 times stronger than CO2. Preventing these emissions therefore starts at the source: biodegradable waste that can be separately collected, recycled or otherwise treated should not be landfilled.
Therefore, ELA supports the European Commission’s proposal from 17 July 2026 to monitor and report methane emissions from landfills. Reliable and comparable data can provide a better understanding of landfill methane emissions across Europe and help identify where large quantities of untreated biodegradable waste are still being landfilled.
However, methane monitoring must recognise the very different roles and emission profiles of Europe’s landfills.
The large majority of the facilities represented by ELA are not landfills for untreated municipal waste. Inert waste landfills, hazardous waste landfills and many non-hazardous waste landfills have fundamentally different methane-generation profiles. Monitoring requirements should therefore be proportionate, risk-based and targeted at landfills where methane emissions can reasonably be expected.
ELA believes that European climate and waste policy should focus first and foremost on preventing new biodegradable waste from being landfilled, while recognising that methane from waste deposited in the past cannot be prevented retrospectively and must instead be appropriately managed.
Therefore, it is essential to rapidly implement the requirements of the EU Landfill Directive in all Member States and to establish appropriate standards within the BAT framework for landfills. This is necessary not only to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but also to create a sustainable and balanced European investment climate and a level playing field within waste management. We must prevent untreated, recyclable waste from ending up in landfills.
Hartmut Haeming, President of ELA:
“Europe needs reliable information on methane emissions, and monitoring should focus where emissions can reasonably be expected. At the same time, European policy must create a level playing field that prevents untreated, recyclable waste from ending up in landfills, while recognising their essential role in safely managing waste that cannot be recycled or otherwise recovered.”
ELA stands ready to contribute its operational expertise to the development of an effective, proportionate and environmentally sound European approach to landfill methane.