Presentation and comments on EU legislation related to food industries - environment interactions and waste management

Although environment remained for a long time at the very top of most advanced countries governments' agenda priorities, and a series of protocols like Montreal (1987), Kyoto (2002), Conference in Rio de Janeiro (1992) and legislations (White and Green Paper, 2001 and 1996, respectively) were put forward among others, the global awareness towards the environment continues to be at a very low level. The main problem towards enforcing legislation is the high cost invoked by most industries and municipalities. However, recent advances in remediation, composting, recycling technology have shown that waste treatment can result in high added value products (i.e. biodiesel, fertiliser) and advantageous to the environment as well. European Union (EU) legislation is currently considered one of the well-compiled and strict legislations compared with other advanced countries (USA, Canada and Japan). Although food industries are not included in the highly polluting ones, their great volume of waste materials generated, makes imperative their undertaking actions in this direction. This review aims at presenting all the EU laws (from the waste management perspective) in connection with the food industries and their interactions with the environment and vice versa.