Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union

E2: Environmental statistics and accounts; sustainable development

2920 Luxembourg LUXEMBOURG

e-mail contact: ESTAT-CIRCULAR-ECONOMY@ec.europa.eu

The indicator is part of the Circular Economy indicator set. It is used to monitor progress towards a circular economy on the thematic area of 'production and consumption'.

In a more circular economy, the value of products, materials and resources is maintained in the economy for as long as possible, and the generation of material waste is reduced quantitatively and improved qualitatively. The Waste prevention is closely linked with improving manufacturing methods and influencing consumers to demand greener products and less packaging. Reducing the amount of waste generated is stated as the highest priority under the Waste Hierarchy established in the Waste Framework Directive (Article 4), which establishes a priority order from prevention, preparation for reuse, recycling and energy recovery, through to environmentally safe disposal, such as landfilling.

The indicator measures the waste collected by or on behalf of municipal authorities and disposed of through the waste management system. It consists to a large extent of waste generated by households, though similar wastes from sources such as commerce, offices and public institutions may be included.

Interpretation of the indicator 

Reducing municipal waste generation is an indication of the effectiveness of waste prevention measures and changing patterns of consumption on the part of the citizens. Concentrating on municipal waste rather than on industrial waste has the advantage that it reflects the consumption side and is not affected by the presence or lack of strong manufacturing sectors in a country.

This indicator focuses on municipal waste. Even though municipal waste only represents about 10% of the total waste generated or about 30% of the generated amount of waste excluding major mineral waste, following up on its evolution can give a good indication of changing consumption patterns and of Member States' waste prevention performance and where citizens' actions and involvement is most relevant.

For the amount of municipal waste generated, the data refer to the handover over the waste to the waste collector or to a disposal site.

Kg per capita (based on annual average population).

Calendar year.

The indicator is produced according to the high-level quality standards of European Statistics. Details on accuracy can be found in the metadata of the source datasets (see link in "Related metadata").

ESS

Data source: European Statistical System (ESS).

Data provider: Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat) based on data reported by the countries: Municipal waste by waste operations (env_wasmun), collected via a subset of the OECD/Eurostat Joint Questionnaire, section waste.

Data are provided under a so-called gentlemen's agreement.

Every year

Indicator is updated annually in March.

T+1 year

New data points are disseminated within one year after the reference year.

All EU MS

Data are presented for all EU Member States plus Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Montenegro, Republic of North Macedonia, Albania, Serbia, Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo.

The EU aggregate is also available.

> 75% EU MS

The concept of municipal waste includes different waste streams in different municipalities. Especially, the extent to which waste generated by offices and small businesses are included differs from municipality to municipality. Thus, different levels of municipal waste generation can reflect different coverage of the generation of waste, but also differences in the organisation of municipal waste management.

> 10 years

Presented time series starts in 2000.

> 4 data points

Length of comparable time series without methodological break is longer than 4 data points.

Analysis of indicator is presented in Commission Staff Working Document.

Eurostat, Statistics Explained: Municipal waste statistics.

See table cei_pc031

Eurostat dedicated section on Circular Economy.

Eurostat dedicated section on Waste Statistics.

DG ENV, Implementation of the Circular Economy Action Plan.

Copyrights:

Eurostat Copyright/Licence Policy is applicable.