Recycling and resource efficiency
Much of the steel, aluminium and other metal inputs used by European industry comes from secondary, or recycled, sources. Indeed, given Europe’s long industrial history and high standard of living, its ‘urban mines’ supplies are a considerable and valuable source of raw material.
As the processing of recycled material requires less energy than the processing of ore, recycling also saves on carbon emissions. Overall, while recycling cannot meet all of our needs, there is still much potential for greater recycling. Beyond recycling, resource efficiency and substitution also play a part in easing the dependence on primary raw materials and import dependency.
In the Raw Materials Initiative strategy document 
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published on 2 February 2011, the Commission proposed a number of measures aimed at improving how recycling markets work, namely through the possible development of best practices in collection and treatment of waste, improvement in the availability of certain statistics on waste and materials flows, and support for research on economic incentives for recycling.
This strategy also reaffirms the need for action to improve enforcement of waste rules, in particular to tackle illegal shipment of waste from Europe to non-OECD countries where treatment often results in damage to the environment and a permanent loss of material.
Many of the objectives of this plan have been incorporated into the 2020 Flagship Initiative on Resource Efficiency. A European Commission Communication 
on this Flagship was published on 26 January 2011. This will be followed by a Communication on a Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe, which is planned for adoption by the end of 2011.
