Recital (59)

It is important that Member States’ implementation of Council Directive 1999/31/EC is substantially and rapidly improved to avoid environmental harm in the Union, including cross-border issues, caused by illegal landfilling of waste. As such, it is appropriate for the Commission to evaluate Directive 1999/31/EC in order to assess ways to strengthen its implementation and present, where appropriate, a legislative proposal to amend it. Furthermore, building on the outcome of the possible update of Union legislation on waste resulting from the upcoming Circular Economy Act, as mentioned in the Commission communication of 26 February 2025 entitled The Clean Industrial Deal: A joint roadmap for competitiveness and decarbonisation, the Commission should evaluate Directive 2008/98/EC and present, where appropriate, a legislative proposal. In the context of that evaluation, and given the present lack of robust data on waste textile, textile-related and footwear products and on the financing of the related extended producer responsibility schemes to be set up by Member States, the Commission should assess first the possibility of setting waste prevention, collection, preparing for re-use, and recycling targets, and second whether national extended producer responsibility schemes for textile, textile-related and footwear products are effectively financed, including if commercial re-use operators could financially contribute to the financing of extended producer responsibility schemes. In addition, the Commission should also assess the possibility for Member States to introduce prior sorting of mixed municipal waste in order to prevent waste which could be recovered for preparing for re-use, or recycling, from being sent to waste incineration or disposed in landfills.