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E2: Environmental statistics and accounts; sustainable development

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

Minimising the generation of waste is a key part of the Circular Economy Action Plan. In the Circular Economy Action Plan, waste is considered as a resource. Waste management plays a central role in the circular economy.

EU waste management policies aim to reduce the environmental and health impacts of waste and to improve the EU’s resource efficiency. The long-term aim of these policies is to reduce the amount of waste generated, and when waste generation is unavoidable, to promote it as a resource and achieve higher levels of recycling and the safe disposal of waste.

The indicator is defined as total waste generated in a country including major mineral wastes (all NACE activities plus households), divided by the average population of the country.

Waste, defined by Directive 2008/98/EC Article 3(1) as ‘any substance or object which the holder discards or intends or is required to discard‘, potentially represents an enormous loss of resources in the form of both materials and energy. This indicator includes major mineral wastes for all NACE activities plus households.

Interpretation: The indicator is commonly used in the context of monitoring waste generation at Member State level. It measures the effectiveness of waste prevention’ measures. Solid data and possibility to compare Member States' performance and in time series.

Kilogram per capita.

Calendar year.

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: Generation of waste by waste category, hazardousness and NACE Rev. 2 activity (env_wasgen) collected on the basis of the Waste Statistics Regulation (EC) No 2150/2002.

Every 2 years

Indicator is updated every second year.

T+2 years

New data points are disseminated within two years after the reference year.

All EU MS

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

The EU aggregate is also available.

All EU MS

Data are comparable between all EU Member States.

> 10 years

Presented time series starts in 2004.

> 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: Waste statistics.

Eurostat, Environment Publications.

See table cei_pc034 

Eurostat dedicated section on Circular Economy.

Eurostat dedicated section on Waste.

DG ENV, Implementation of the Circular Economy Action Plan.

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