Emergence of Waste Prevention Principle in the Production Process in the EU Laws

The EU enhanced waste prevention to the first step of waste management hierarchy and laid down considerable regulations, directives, and communications to call the Member States to take the necessary measures in minimizing the waste in production processes. Developed with a descriptive-analytical approach, the present paper tackles the status of waste prevention in the EU laws and evaluates the EU integrates waste prevention enactments in its general policies on the natural resources preservation and eco-efficiency of its production systems. It concludes that the EU regards the matter of waste prevention not only as an environmental protection policy, but also as a part of its long-term resources efficiency and circular economy policies. Evolution of the EU legal approach in waste prevention reveals a significant shift in environmental and natural resources law and it sounds that a new enviromental law principle is progressively being emerged in this legal system as a soft law.