Between 2010 and 2022, the amount of waste generated per person in the European Union has remained largely unchanged. On average, each person in the EU produces nearly 5 tonnes of waste per year when major mineral wastes, such as those from construction and demolition, are included. Even without these, the figure still stands at approximately 1.8 tonnes per person annually.
The EU has made notable progress in improving how waste is managed. The proportion of waste treated through recovery methods – such as recycling, backfilling, or incineration with energy recovery – increased from 45.9% in 2004 to 61.4% in 2022. However, landfilling still accounts for around 30% of all waste treatment, with some countries continuing to rely heavily on it. This is despite EU legislation such as the Landfill Directive, which aims to reduce the landfilling of municipal solid waste to 10% or less by 2035.
Landfilling remains the least preferred option in the EU’s Waste Hierarchy. When not properly managed, landfills can pose serious risks to human health, the environment, and the climate.
In this context, the Best Available Techniques Reference Document (BREF) for landfills (LAN BREF) offers a crucial opportunity to address these environmental and climate challenges. By setting minimum standards for landfill operation across Europe, the landfill BREF helps ensure that waste management practices are both effective and aligned with the EU’s sustainability goals.
The scope of these requirements will apply to any European landfill that receives more than 10 tonnes of waste per day or has a capacity exceeding 25,000 tonnes, excluding landfills of inert waste. Currently, approximately 2,800 landfills fall under the IED’s scope.
The future LAN BREF will also serve as technical guidance for achieving environmental compliance in various industrial sectors beyond the EU. BREFs are often implicitly referred to as minimum requirements or best practices beyond the EU, such as by the World Bank or OECD. They are widely applied in Mediterranean countries and are considered reference documents by other nations when developing environmental legislation, particularly in the Global South, which is of particular relevance in the context of waste treatment and landfilling.
Process and status
The LAN BREF process commenced with the formation of the Technical Working Group (TWG) at the beginning of 2025. A first round of consultations (“frontloading surveys”) was submitted by stakeholders in April 2025. A background report by the European Commission summarizing all stakeholder input is expected for September 2025, and the first meeting of the TWG (“Kick-Off Meeting”) in Sevilla is scheduled for October 2025. The entire process is expected to not exceed 4 years.
Main Environmental issues
The LAN BREF will address all key environmental aspects of landfills, including (but not limited to) emissions to air (diffuse and channeled), water (leachate volume and composition), and soil, as well as the use of resources like water, energy, and auxiliary chemicals or materials. Additionally, it will incorporate considerations for the circular economy and decarbonisation efforts.
If not managed in an environmentally sound manner, landfills pose a serious threat to human health, environmental protection, and the climate.
The key issue that could be improved through the LAN BREF and the engagement of civil society in its development process is the tremendous climate impact of landfills stemming from the decomposition of organic waste in landfills. Methane – a potent greenhouse gas – is emitted from decomposing waste. The waste sector is responsible for nearly 20% of global human-made methane emissions, with landfills alone contributing about 10%. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), to meet the 1.5°C climate target, methane emissions from the waste sector must be reduced by 30–35% below 2020 levels by 2030, and by nearly 55% by 2050.
The LAN BREF provides for ample opportunity to address methane emissions from landfills, notably
- by regulating the (organic) input to landfills,
- implementing effective methane capture and treatment (e.g. flaring) techniques,
- optimizing the general operations of landfills (e.g. temporary covering) as well as regulating the aftercare, once the regular operation of a landfill ends.
Furthermore, the EEB calls for robust monitoring requirements that remediates the potential underestimation of the climate impacts of landfills.
Beyond the climate impacts, the landfill BREF also provides opportunities to address other environmental issues, such as PFAS pollution from landfill gas and leachate.
For more information, see the EEB’s submission via the frontloading survey.
“How can you make a difference?”
The process to develop LAN BREFs has recently commenced with a first round of consultations (“frontloading”) with the objective of identifying “key environmental issues” (KEI) related to landfill operations. KEIs are those aspects related to the operation of landfills for which BAT conclusions have the highest likelihood of resulting in noteworthy additional environmental benefits. As stated above, among other topics, the EEB has identified the following issues as particularly important and would appreciate any input to substantiate their environmental significance and data from demonstration or commercially operating plants (worldwide) showcasing best-in-class pollution prevention performance:
- Addressing methane emissions by regulating the (organic) input to landfills (i.e., Waste Acceptance Criteria, WACs), implementing effective methane capture and treatment (e.g. flaring) techniques, optimizing the general operations of landfills (e.g. temporary covering) as well as regulating the aftercare, once the regular operation of a landfill ends.
- Addressing PFAS pollution from landfill gas and leachate, e.g., through regulating the PFAS-containing incoming waste (i.e., WACs), capturing and stabilizing PFAS from leachate, as well as capturing and destroying PFAS in landfill gas through high-temperature flaring.
Contacts
Fynn Hauschke, Senior Policy Officer Circular Economy and Waste, fynn.hauschke@eeb.org